Kayla DiBenedetto, M.S.
Clinical Research Coordinator @Goldstein Lab - Mass General Hospital
Mass General Hospital
Kayla graduated from Brandeis University in 2026 with a Master of Science in Neuroscience. She also obtained a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Brandeis in 2025. While in school, she developed a strong interest in sex differences in the brain and women’s health.
During her undergraduate career, Kayla had the opportunity to study abroad in Australia, where she completed an independent research project assessing age-related cognitive decline and recognition memory in fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rats. Her findings included a sex-dependent difference in how the rats approached novel objects. Her first author manuscript on the topic was published by the Journal of Zoology in June 2026.
Back in the States, Kayla worked as a research assistant in the Social Interaction and Motivation Lab at Brandeis University, where she used EEG to investigate the neural underpinnings of empathy. In particular, she focused on how racial ingroup bias may be exacerbated by cognitive load.
Outside of academics, Kayla enjoys running, comedy clubs, and traveling to new places.