My primary research interests are in the role of early experiences (parent-infant relationships, environmental, and individual differences) that promote healthy brain development and in identifying factors that may place an individual at risk for psychopathology. I am interested in infant, child, and adult development and I employ various behavioural and neuroimaging techniques, including eye-tracking, electroencephalogram (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
I did my Ph.D in Developmental Science at the University of Maryland, following which I was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Since then I've been at Cardiff University's Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS) and Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC).
Experience
2015–present
Lecturer, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
2012–2015
Postdoctoral research fellow, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Education
2012
University of Maryland, College Park, MD USA, Ph.D. in Developmental Science
2003
Saint Olaf College, Northfield, MN USA, B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics
Publications
2017
Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect., Journal of Neurophysiology
2016
Normalization of EEG activity among previously institutionalized children placed into foster care: A 12-year follow-up of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project., Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
2015
Early psychosocial neglect adversely impacts developmental trajectories of brain oscillations and their interactions., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
2015
Early social experience affects neural activity to affiliative facial gestures in newborn nonhuman primates., Developmental Neuroscience
2013
Psychosocial deprivation, executive functions, and the emergence of socio-emotional behavior problems., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
2010
Timing of intervention affects brain electrical activity in children exposed to severe psychosocial neglect., PLoS ONE
2008
Persistent problems in attention amongst children exposed to early severe social deprivation: Recent findings from The Bucharest Early Intervention Project, Psychophysiology