Sackler Institute _{for Developmental Psychobiology}

Developmental cognitive neuroscience of attention and learning

I am interested in the selection mechanisms that support early perception and learning and am pursuing two lines of research in the service of addressing these issues. The first is a set of eye tracking investigations into the mechanisms underlying oculomotor control and selective attention in infancy and the role of the development of these mechanisms on the ability to extract information, i.e., learn, from the environment. The second line involves using eye tracking and electrophysiological techniques in infants and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in children/adults to investigate the genetic, cognitive, and neural processes underlying simple mechanisms of information acquisition. The ultimate goal of this work is to illuminate how disruption of the development of targeted brain systems can give rise to various developmental and learning deficits that, when in place early postnatally, can alter the general course of development.

Curriculum Vitae