Erin Hecht

Erin Hecht is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. She directs the Evolutionary Neuroscience Laboratory, investigating how brains evolve across species and how selection shapes neural circuits underlying behavior and cognition. Her work often focuses on domestic dogs as a model for understanding brain-behavior relationships, breed-specific neuroanatomy, and the impacts of domestication. She integrates neuroimaging, comparative approaches, and behavioral data to study brain organization and plasticity. Hecht’s research spans humans, nonhuman primates, and canids, advancing knowledge of neural diversity and evolution while building open resources and interdisciplinary collaborations across Harvard’s neuroscience community.