Kathleen Casto

Graduate Areas: 

• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Social-Health

Does Dr. Casto plan to recruit a doctoral student for the next incoming class?

Research Interests:

As a behavioral neuroendocrinologist, I seek to uncover hormonal and neural mechanisms that influence social interactions, optimal performance, and health outcomes. One current focus of my research is on the influence of hormonal transitions (e.g., menstrual cycle fluctuations) and interventions (e.g., hormonal contraceptive use) on social-status behaviors, psycho-social stress, and mood disruption. A second area of focus is on testing steroid hormone correlates of attention, emotion, and reward-related patterns of cortical brain activation. My laboratory uses a variety of methods to test interdisciplinary research questions with human participants including hormonal assays, surveys, behavioral tasks, and most recently, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS, a neuroimaging technique).

Courses Frequently Taught:

• Psychobiology of Love and War

Recent Publications:

Link to: Google Scholar Page

• Casto, K.V., Farah, S.*, Castro, A.*, Akinola, M., and Mehta, P. (2025). Hormonal contraceptive use in relation to basal and reactive testosterone, DHEAS, and cortisol. Hormones and Behavior, 175, 105806.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105806 
• Heller, C., Christensen, E., Murata, E.M., Petersen, N., Casto, K., Datta, S., Larsen, B., & Arciniega (2025). Why menstrual cycle irregularities belong in brain research. Nature Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03879-1       
• Stern, J. & Casto, K.V. (2024). Salivary testosterone across the menstrual cycle. Hormones and Behavior, 164, 105608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105608
• Casto, K.V. & Maney, D.M. (2024). Sex/gender diversity and behavioral neuroendocrinology in the 21st century. Editorial and Introduction to the special issue by the same name. Hormones and Behavior, 163, 105545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105545 
• Casto, K.V., Cohen, D.J., Akinola, M., & Mehta, P.H. (2024). Testosterone, Gender Identity and Gender-Stereotyped Personality Attributes. In the special issue, Sex/gender diversity and behavioral neuroendocrinology in the 21st century, Hormones and Behavior, 162. 105540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105540
• Casto K.V. & Carré, J.M. (2023) Testosterone, Sex, and Sport. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322231197583 
• Casto, K. V., Arthur, L., Lynch-Wells, S., & Blake, K. (2023). Women in their mid-follicular phase outcompete hormonal contraceptive users, an effect partially explained by relatively greater progesterone and cortisol reactivity to competition. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 157, 106367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106367
• Petersen, N., Beltz, A.M., Casto, K.V., Taylor, C.M., Jacobs, E.G., Sundström-Poromaa, I., & Pletzer, B. (2023). Towards a more comprehensive neuroscience of hormonal contraceptives. Nature Neuroscience, 1-3.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01273-z 
• Casto, K.V., Prasad, S., Josephs, R.A., Zilioli, S., Welker, K., Maslov, A., ... & Mehta, P. H. (2023). No compelling evidence that self-reported personality traits explain basal testosterone and cortisol’s associations with status-relevant behavior. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-023-00210-5
• Murphy, B.A., Casto, K.V., Watts, A.L., Costello, T.H., Jolink, T.A., Verona, E., & Algoe, S. (2022) “Feeling Powerful” versus “Desiring Power”: A pervasive and problematic conflation in personality assessment? Journal of Research in Personality, 101, 104305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104305
• Casto, K.V., Jordan, T., & Petersen, N. (2022) Hormone-based models for comparing menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive effects on human resting-state functional connectivity. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology Special Issue on Hormonal contraceptives and the brain: A call for translational research, 67, 101036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2022.101036   
• Stern, J., Hildebrand, T., & Casto, K.V. (2022). Women’s intrasexual competitiveness and jealousy across the ovulatory cycle – A hormone-based study. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221117712