James R. Booth

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

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 specialization of and 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. We use multimodal neuroimaging to understand the developmental process including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and event-related potentials (ERPs). In addition to examining typical populations, our work also investigates atypical conditions such as dyslexia (reading disability), dyscalculia (math disability) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It, therefore, has direct implications for the diagnosis and treatment of developmental disorders.

Lab Affiliation

Principal Investigator: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory

Education

PhD	Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
MS	Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
BA	Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Publications

Cao F, Lee R, Yang Y, Xu G, Li K & Booth JR (2010). Cultural constraints on brain development: Evidence from a developmental study of visual word processing in Mandarin Chinese. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 1223-1233

Bitan T, Cheon J, Lu D, Burman DD & Booth JR (2009). Developmental increase in top-down and bottom-up processing in a phonological task: An effective connectivity, fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 1135-1145.

Bolger DJ, Hornickel J, Cone NE, Burman DD, Booth JR (2008). Neural correlates of orthographic and phonological consistency effects in children. Human Brain Mapping, 29, 1416-1429

Cone NE, Burman DD, Bitan T & Booth JR (2008). Developmental changes in brain regions involved in phonological and orthographic processing during spoken language processing. Neuroimage, 48, 623-635.

Burman DD, Bitan T, & Booth JR (2008). Sex differences in neural processing of language among children. Neuropsychologia, 46, 1349-1362.

Grants

08-13	Neural development and disorders of math processing. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
09-11	Multiple pathway models of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). National Institute of Mental Health.
08-13	Neural development of lexical processing. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Courses

CSD 303/ PSYCH 364	Brain and Cognition
CSD 434	Neuropsychology of Learning Disabilities
CSD 451	Language Science
CSD 551	Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
NUIN 401	Fundamentals of Neuroscience