Melissa Walsh, Ph.D.

Melissa J. M. Walsh is a research instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a doctoral degree in auditory and language neuroscience from Arizona State University. Her research expertise is in neuroimaging, reproductive neuroendocrinology and cognitive aging.

Walsh’s National Research Service Award-sponsored doctoral training focused on multimodal and multivariate neuroimaging approaches to study cognitive aging in autism. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Training Program for Reproductive Mood Disorders, her work has focused on how reproductive hormones impact brain structure, connectivity and molecular function. Through this training, she has gained expertise in menopause research, neuroendocrinology and PET-MR neuroimaging.

Her current research interests focus on understanding how the brain adapts to menopause and mechanisms supporting cognitive resilience. Her research will integrate multimodal and molecular neuroimaging techniques such as synaptic density imaging with experimental studies of hormone administration and longitudinal studies of natural menopause. She is leading projects studying the menopause transition and links to cognition and brain aging, including an investigation of estradiol treatment and a longitudinal study of neuroactive steroids. Her goal is to advance sex-specific models of brain aging and inform strategies to promote cognitive health in women.