Sonya V. Troller-Renfree was awarded the Kucharski Early-Career Award from the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology. This award is given to honor the memory of David Kucharski, a promising young investigator in the field of Developmental Psychobiology. As the winner of this award, Sonya will receive a cash award and will be invited to present at the annual ISDP meeting.
From July 7th-9th, our Principal Investigator, Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, our Post-Doc, Josué Rico-Picó, and our PhD Students, Ji Young Song and Haleigh Brown, gave their presentations titled, “Associations between Prenatal Maternal Stress and Functional Brain Activity at Age 3”, “Alpha Development Reconsidered: Characterizing the emergence and maturation of alpha bursts”, “Maternal Depression & Trajectories of Socioemotional Behavioral Problems from Infancy to Early Childhood in Low-Income Families: Latent Growth Curve & Group-Based Trajectory Analyses”, “Developmental trajectories…
Haleigh Brown was awarded the Provost's Grant for Conference Presentation & Professional Development at Teachers College. She also presented two posters titled, "Associations between Infant Nutrition and Functional Brain Activity at 12 months" and "Socioeconomic Status and Newborn Brain Development: A Cross-National EEG Investigation in the United States and South Africa" at the Provost’s Grant Research Expo hosted by TC NEXT. Read more about it here.
Caitlin Aloisio received an Honorable Mention from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). This is considered a significant national academic achievement. Congratulations, Caitlin!
On March 6th, our Principal Investigator, Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, our PhD Student, Haleigh Brown and our post-doc, Josué Rico-Picó, gave their presentations titled, “Give It a Rest: Is Resting EEG a Reliable Biomarker or Just Background Noise?”, “Emerging Strengths from Early Adversity: Evidence from Prosocial Empathy”, and “Re-evaluating the Neural Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers in Childhood: The Role of Aperiodic and Oscillatory Activity Background ” at the NYC Conference on Developmental Science Agenda 2026.
Katie Gray was awarded the Dean's Grant for Student Research at Teachers College. This grant will provide funding to expand data collection in the BUDDY Study!
On November 13th, our PhD Students, Haleigh Brown and Katie Gray, presented their posters titled, "Associations between Infant Nutrition and Functional Brain Activity at 12 months", "Socioeconomic Status and Newborn Brain Development: A Cross-National EEG Investigation in the United States and South Africa", "The Role of Parent-Child Activities in Preschoolers' Resting Brain Activity", and "Pediatric Resting EEG Collection, Processing, and Analysis: A Systematic Review" at the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) Conference 2025 in San Diego, California.
On July 30th, our research assistants, Alexa Guzman, Jessica Guevara Moran, and Sylvie Bergquist, presented their posters titled, “Strength-Based Adaptations: Examining SES and Prosocial Empathy in Toddlers”, “Building Brains at Home: How Cognitive Stimulation Supports Early Language Development in Monolingual and Bilingual Children”, and “Maternal Stress and Child Behavior: Importance of Environmental Buffers” at the Lida Orzeck ‘68 Poster Session 2025 at Barnard College.
On May 9th, out research assistants, Abby Lee and Siqi Liang, presented their posters"Meta-analysis of educational RCT's: Fadeout and persistence from 6-24 months post-intervention", "Pathways to prosociality: Language ability as a mediator between home cognitive stimulation and children’s prosocial behavior at age 3.5" and "Exploring Pathways from SES to Child Executive Function: A Preliminary Examination of Maternal Stress and Play" at the 8th Annual Psychology@TC Student Research Conference.
Our research assistants, Abby Lee and Siqi Liang, presented their posters titled "Maternal Play and Empathy Development in Children Aged 4.5 to 5-Years" and "Meta-analysis of educational RCT's: Fadeout and persistence from 6-24 months post-intervention" at the Eastern Psychological Association 2025 conference hosted in New York.
We hope you all had a restful and warm winter break! We had a wonderful time celebrating each other and the end of a successful year.
Our 1st year PhD student, Haleigh Brown, presented her poster “Childhood Adversity and Resting Functional Brain Development: A Systematic Review and Guiding Framework” at the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology 2024 conference hosted in Chicago.
Dr. Sonya Troller-Renfree co-authored the publication "Mothers with low incomes view both individual and structural interventions as potentially helpful for supporting early child development." This study sought to better understand the perspectives of mothers with low incomes in regards to interventions and policies.
Our undergraduate RA, Teisha Jalan, presented her poster titled "The Association Between Maternal Stress and Executive Functioning in 4.5 to 5-Year-Olds" at the Lida Orzeck '68 Poster Session.
Collaborating with the NEED Lab, Dr. Sonya Troller-Renfree co-authored the new publication "Prenatal family income, but not parental education, is associated with resting brain activity in 1-month-old infants." This article found that income may be associated with infants' brain activity, even when accounting for other demographics and health.