CRANE RESEARCH FORUM: Developmental brain imaging of human cognition

Each month’s Crane Research Forum features research on emerging or key topics affecting children. These events are free and open to all, but registration is required.

Dr. Zeynep Saygin, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University

How does uniquely human cognition emerge in the brain? The developmental cognitive neuroscience laboratory at OSU uses noninvasive brain imaging (MRI) to study newborns, infants, and young children before and as they start school. Dr. Zeynep Saygin will discuss recent studies on how individual variability in language, executive function, and reading emerges in the brain. She will also discuss clinical and educational applications, including how early brain data can be used to make individualized predictions about how a child will develop, and ways that this research can inform preventative and intervention research and vice-versa.

Dr. Saygin’s research looks at how specific brain areas become responsible for particular cognitive functions, and how it changes with traumatic injury. Her research has shown that neuroanatomical scans alone can predict a child’s brain function and outcomes including later reading development and dyslexia. Her goal is to offer powerful new strategies to understand, diagnose, and predict treatment outcomes for neurological disorders.

*If you require any accommodations such as live captioning or interpretation to fully participate in this event, please contact Cathy Kupsky (kupsky.3@osu.edu). Requests made two weeks before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.