Maria Diehl, Ph. D.
Contact Information
Office: BH 417
Phone: 532-0608
E-mail: mmdiehl@ksu.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-7370-6106
Twitter: @DrDiehl_Neuro
Dr. Diehl is accepting graduate students for Fall 2027.
Research Interests
Dr. Diehl's research program investigates why some individuals can overcome trauma and develop lasting resilience, while others go on to develop anxiety- and trauma-related disorders such as PTSD. Using platform-mediated avoidance, a rodent model of active avoidance learning, the Diehl lab studies the behavioral and neural mechanisms that shape how animals decide when to avoid a threat versus approach a reward.
A central question in the lab is how animals select among different behavioral strategies when facing threat and reward simultaneously, and how factors like social context and biological sex shape that selection process. Specifically, we are interested in how rats use social cues to balance safety and reward and how prefrontal circuits support this decision making.
To answer these questions, we use c-Fos immunohistochemistry and single unit recordings to map activity in these circuits, and we use optogenetics and chemogenetics to test the causal role of these neural circuits during active avoidance. We are also recording ultrasonic vocalizations as another behavioral readout during our tasks.
Students in the Diehl lab gain hands-on experience across many aspects of this research: running animals in the behavioral tasks that model clinical symptoms of excessive fear and avoidance, learning surgical and immunohistochemistry techniques, and working with behavioral tracking and vocalization analysis tools. Along the way, students develop skills in experimental design, data interpretation, scientific literacy, and critical thinking with mentorship tailored to each student's stage, whether they're just starting in research or building toward independent projects.
Recent Publications
Payne K, Ruble S, Ness H, Durrett H, Kramer C, Diehl MM. (2026). “Darting during platform-mediated avoidance in male and female rats is spatially organized between reward and safety locations.” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2026.1887899.
Diehl MM. (2026). “Beyond the Isolated Animal: Integrating Social Dimensions into Aversive Learning Paradigms.” Current Protocols in Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1002/cpz1.70424.
Ruble S, West L, Kramer C, Durrett H, Diehl MM. (2026). “The behavioral and neural architecture of observational active avoidance is shaped by demonstrator experience and observer sex.” Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-50571-6.
Kramer C, Ruble S, Fort TD, West L, Diehl MM. (2025). Modifying the platform-mediated avoidance task: A new protocol to study active avoidance within a social context in rats. PLoS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321776.
Ruble S, Payne K, Kramer C, West L, Ness H, Erickson G, Scott A, Diehl MM. (2025). Social context modulates active avoidance: Contributions of the anterior cingulate cortex in male and female rats. Neurobiology of Stress. DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100702.
Diehl MM, Moscarello JM, Trask S. (2024). "Behavioral outputs and overlapping circuits between conditional fear and active avoidance." Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2024.107943.
Martínez-Rivera FJ, Pérez-Torres J, Velázquez-Díaz CD, Sánchez-Navarro MJ, Huertas-Pérez CI, Diehl MM, Phillips ML, Haber SN, Quirk GJ. (2023). “A novel insular/orbito-prelimbic circuit that prevents persistent avoidance in a rodent model of compulsive behavior.” Biological Psychiatry . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.02.008.
Diehl MM, Iravedra-Garcia JM, Morán-Sierra J, Rojas-Bowe G, Gonzalez-Diaz FN, Valentín-Valentín V, and Quirk GJ. (2020). "Divergent projections of the prelimbic cortex bidirectionally regulate active avoidance." eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.59281.
Sangha S, Diehl MM, Bergstrom HC, Drew MR. (2020). "Know safety, no fear." Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.11.006.
Diehl MM, Bravo-Rivera C, Quirk GJ. (2019). “The study of active avoidance: a platform for discussion.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.010.
Diehl MM, Bravo-Rivera C, Rodríguez-Romaguera J, Pagán-Rivera PA, Burgos-Robles A, Roman-Ortiz C, Quirk GJ. (2018). “Active avoidance requires inhibitory signaling in the rodent prelimbic prefrontal cortex.” eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.34657.
Diehl MM, Lempert K, Parr A, Ballard I, Steele V, Smith DV. (2018). “Toward an integrative perspective on the neural mechanisms underlying persistent maladaptive behaviors.” European Journal of Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14083.
Bravo-Rivera C, Diehl MM, Román-Ortiz C, Rodríguez-Romaguera J, Rosas-Vidal LE, Bravo-Rivera H, Quiñones-Laracuente K, Do-Monte FH. (2015). “Long range GABAergic neurons in the prefrontal cortex modulate behavior.” Journal of Neurophysiology. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00861.2014.