Projects Overview

The overall goal of our research is to understand mechanisms of brain development. The theoretical framework guiding our research is that development should be associated with age-related increases in the specialization of and the interaction between brain regions. In other words, the brain should segregate into regions with unique computational principles but these regions should also become more integrated. Much of our work focuses on recently invented symbol systems involved in reading and math, so we are investigating how acquisition of these systems is constrained by evolutionarily older brain structures. Our models of typical brain function are also informed by our work in atypical conditions such as dyslexia (reading disability), dyscalculia (math disability) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The social and economic costs of illiteracy are enormous, yet we know little about it brain basis, so our work has important implications for the identification and treatment of developmental disorders. We use multimodal neuroimaging to understand the developmental process including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Over the years, we have emphasized the use of a priori effective connectivity models to understand the dynamics of brain function, but more recently we are employing large-scale functional connectivity methods to investigate patterns of segregation and integration.