Rate My Professor Calvin Young

Dr. Calvin Young serves as a Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. He earned his PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience from the University of Calgary in 2010, an MSc in Psychology from the University of Otago in 2005, and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Otago in 2002. Following his doctoral studies, Young completed a postdoctoral position at the Karolinska Institutet in the Department of Neuroscience from 2012 to 2015. Since 2016, he has held research positions at the University of Otago, initially as a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology and currently as a Research Fellow in Physiology, contributing to the Iremonger Lab.

Young's research focuses on behavioural neuroscience, neural oscillations such as theta rhythms in the hippocampus, and their roles in learning, memory, anxiety, depression, and stress responses. He employs electrophysiological recordings, deep brain stimulation, behavioural tasks, and advanced data analysis techniques including Matlab and machine learning. Recent work utilizes imaging and computational approaches to map stress-related brain activities in zebrafish, exploring neural circuits in the hypothalamus and their links to affective disorders. Key publications include 'Ultradian rhythms of CRHPVN neuron activity, behavior, and stress hormone secretion' (PNAS, 2025, co-authored with Zheng, Iremonger et al.), 'Infraslow closed-loop brain training for anxiety and depression (ISAD): A pilot randomised, sham-controlled trial in adult females with internalizing disorders' (Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2025, co-authored with Perez et al.), 'Supramammillary Theta Oscillations in Water Maze Learning' (2024), and 'Prefrontal and hippocampal theta rhythm show anxiolytic-like changes during periaqueductal-elicited “panic” in rats' (2022). His body of work comprises over 30 publications with 442 citations. Young has presented at conferences such as the Genetics Otago Symposium (2026) and the New Zealand Medical Sciences Congress (2024), and co-chairs neuroscience sessions.