Research Projects

A growing body of research has found socioeconomic disparities in children's language and memory development in early childhood. The BUDDY Study first followed approximately 200 children through the first three years of their life understand how brain function, language, and memory develops during this important period. The second phase of the BUDDY Study will follow these children until age 4.5.

The project investigates how maternal stress and child stress prospectively predict concurrent and longitudinal child brain activity and examines how stress-related patterns of brain activity predict changes in cognitive and socioemotional functioning in the year before school entry.

In response to the growing body of research examining the effects of socioeconomic disparities on cognitive development, Baby's First Years is the first randomized experiment testing causal connections between poverty reduction and brain development among very young children. 

The project investigates how maternal and child stress alters brain activity across infancy and early childhood and how such alterations predict neurocognitive and socioemotional functioning. Elucidating the direct influence of chronic physiological stress on alterations in brain development and the functional significance of such alterations provides important insights for early identification and intervention of future long-term cognitive and socioemotional outcomes.