Research
Neuroimaging of language and developmental disorders
Appointments
- Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
- Associate Professor, Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
- Member, Neuroscience IDP
- Brain Research Institute
Biography
My main research interests focus on the neural representation of language and social cognition. Using neuroimaging techniques (functional MRI, and, more recently, structural MRI and event related potentials, ERP), my research seeks to
(1) delineate how brain maturation and the development of language and social cognition co-occur in the typically developing brain,
(2) qualify the patterns of brain dysfunction in developmental disorders such as autism, childhood onset schizophrenia, and dyslexia, and
(3) examine the neural basis of linguistic and communicative functions in the adult brain since studies on adults provide a normative developmental endpoint for our developmental investigations and can also address issues of brain plasticity.
Publications
- Aziz-Zadeh, L, Ringold, SM, Jayashankar, A, Kilroy, E, Butera, C, Jacobs, JP et al.. Relationships between brain activity, tryptophan-related gut metabolites, and autism symptomatology. Nat Commun. 2025;16 (1):3465. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58459-1. PubMed PMID:40229237 PubMed Central PMC11997199.
- Coleman, CR, Nance, MG, Jacokes, Z, Druzgal, TJ, Arutiunian, V, Kresse, A et al.. Structural Determinants of Signal Speed: A Multimodal Investigation of Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.03.19.644214. PubMed PMID:40166310 PubMed Central PMC11957106.
- Wagner, L, Cakar, ME, Banchik, M, Chiem, E, Glynn, SS, Than, AH et al.. Beyond motor learning: Insights from infant magnetic resonance imaging on the critical role of the cerebellum in behavioral development. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025;72 :101514. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101514. PubMed PMID:39919679 PubMed Central PMC11848473.
- Wagner, L, Banchik, M, Tsang, T, Okada, NJ, Altshuler, R, McDonald, N et al.. Atypical early neural responses to native and non-native language in infants at high likelihood for developing autism. Mol Autism. 2025;16 (1):6. doi: 10.1186/s13229-025-00640-w. PubMed PMID:39901290 PubMed Central PMC11792659.
- Rao, S, Azuero-Dajud, R, Lorman, V, Landeo-Gutierrez, J, Rhee, KE, Ryu, J et al.. Ethnic and racial differences in children and young people with respiratory and neurological post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2: an electronic health record-based cohort study from the RECOVER Initiative. EClinicalMedicine. 2025;80 :103042. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.103042. PubMed PMID:39850015 PubMed Central PMC11753962.