Principal Investigator

Dr. Hector Arciniega is a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Grossman School of Medicine (NYU-GSoM).

His multifaceted research program is underscored by three pivotal areas of inquiry: 1) Understanding the long-term consequences of repetitive head impacts in contact collision sport athletes, 2) Understanding how social determinants of health and health disparities contribute to head injury incidence, recovery, and outcomes, and 3) Understanding the consequences of head injuries during and after pregnancy to both the parent and fetus. At the core of his research program lies the application of state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques, a dynamic cornerstone that empowers him to gain comprehensive insights into the intricate repercussions of head injuries.

Before joining the faculty at NYU-GSoM, Dr. Arciniega completed his postdoctoral work under the mentorship of Dr. Martha Shenton and Dr. Sylvain Bouix in the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Here, his research program used a combination of behavioral, neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and neuroimaging (structural, diffusion, and functional) to understand the long-term consequences of repetitive head impacts in former American football players. Before this, Dr. Arciniega received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in neuroscience from the University of Nevada, Reno under the mentorship of Dr. Marian Berryhill. During his time as a graduate student, his research focused on studying working memory deficits in older adults and those with a history of concussions. Understanding how and why these basic executive functions decline in these individuals was the focus of his research program. Here, he gained proficiency in a variety of methods including non-invasive neurostimulation techniques, electroencephalography (EEG), and basic scientific approaches for measuring human behavior.

Dr. Arciniega’s exceptional scientific contributions have earned him numerous accolades and prestigious grant funding, solidifying his standing as a distinguished researcher. His noteworthy achievements include: the prestigious NIH/NINDS Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award (F99/K00), the NIH/NIMHD Loan Repayment Program (including an original and renewal application!), the Rainwater Charitable Foundation-Tau Leadership Award, Harvard’s Mind Brain Behavior Young Investigator Award, recognized as a Black Men’s Brain Health Emerging Scholars Fellow, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program Award, and named the Henry Grass Rising Star in Neuroscience Award in 2023 given by the Grass Foundation.