​Emma Duerden, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders. She is the scientific lead of the Developing Brain research program. She is an Associate Professor in Applied Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. She is also a Scientist in the Maternal, Fetal and Newborn Health Division at the Children's Health Research Institute. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from McGill University. She trained at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) for her Master's degree in Neuroscience. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Montreal. Her research examines early life stress and the association with brain development and cognitive outcomes in infants with critical illness and children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

She has been honoured with several local, provincial and national awards for her research including the Early Researcher Award (Province of Ontario), CHRI Scientist of the Year (2023), the Future Leaders in Brain Research Award (Brain Canada), and the Early Career Investigator award in maternal, reproductive, child and youth health (CIHR).
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Research scientists, Research Associates & POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

​Emily Nichols, PhD is Research Scientist and Adjunct Research Professor in the Developing Brain Lab, studying the developing brain using neuroimaging, starting from the fetus until early childhood. She is working to develop preprocessing pipelines to address some of the key difficulties in fetal neuroimaging, and to develop prenatal biomarkers of Intrauterine Growth Restriction. Her graduate work in neuroscience involved the study of bilingual language processing, and she also completed a post doc in computational neuroscience, using techniques in the field of machine learning.
Eun Jung Choi, PhD completed her Doctorate at Seoul National University in South Korea and is currently working with Dr. Emma Duerden and Dr. Ryan Stevenson as a Research Associate. She has investigated brain-behaviour associations in children and youths encompassing clinical and non-clinical populations. Her recent work includes examining children’s lifestyle changes and their associated behavioural and mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as identifying resting-state functional connectivity features underpinning sensory phenotypes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD, ADHD and OCD).

  GRADUATE STUDENTS and undergraduate thesis students

Lingkai Tang, MSc completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Northwestern Polytechincal University, China, in 2015. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Masters of Science. His Masters thesis focused on brain-network analyses in children with autism spectrum disorder. Currently, he is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering and his research focusses on using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study brain injury in infants and children impacted by critical illness.
Michaela Kent, MSc is a PhD student in the Neuroscience program, co-supervised by Emma Duerden and Jody Culham. Her interest in the developing brain has been a driving factor behind previous work. Michaela has worked on both fMRI and fNIRS neuroimaging projects to explore aspects of social cognition. Her current research involves studying the developing brain in more naturalistic settings using optical neuroimaging and behavioural measures.
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Elizabeth Kuenzel, MA is a PhD student in School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western. She completed her Master of Arts in School and Applied Child Psychology at Western, and completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton. Elizabeth has worked with children with ASD doing ABA therapy, as well as with adults with disabilities as a residential counsellor. In her current research she is interested in how early adversity impacts cognitive outcomes and mental health in children with ASD.
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Megan Mueller, MA, is a PhD student in School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. Megan completed her undergraduate degree at McMaster University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, with a specialization in Mental Health. She also completed Master’s degrees in both Developmental Psychology and Education at the University of Toronto, OISE and in the School and Applied Child Psychology at Western University. Megan is interested in expanding her research to explore whether brain development and injury in premature infants is a predictor of later social-emotional development and mental health. 
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Julia Montenegro, MA, is a PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. Julia worked as a psychotherapist in Brazil for many years before moving to Canada in 2018. Back in Brazil, she completed her undergraduate degree at UNIFESP (Universidade Federal de São Paulo - Brazil) and followed a 2-year Residency Program, which gave her the title of specialist in Mental Health. In Canada, Julia completed her MA in School and Applied Child Psychology at Western University. She is now continuing her research with babies, looking at early behavioural measures and brain development to identify young infants with an increased likelihood of developing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  This research aims to facilitate the identification of those infants and access to early interventions.
Susana Correa, BHS is a Master student in the Neuroscience program at Western. She completed her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at Western University. Her master's thesis project is involved in looking at the associations between cannabis exposure prenatally and the development of functional connectivity in the third trimester of gestation. 
Alissa Papadopoulos, MA, is a PhD Student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. She completed her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology at Western University and completed her undergraduate degree in biology & psychology at McMaster University. Alissa’s current research involves studying the impact of maternal mental health on brain and motor development in infants.
Abagail Hennessy, B.A., is a second year M.A. student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program in the faculty of Education at Western. Abagail has a keen interest in supporting children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) through her research. As an undergraduate student, Abagail worked in the Developing Brain Lab to develop her thesis on amygdala maturation in children with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety, which was recently published. Abagail continues to work in the Developing Brain Lab during her graduate studies. Under Dr. Duerden’s supervision, Abagail is conducting her Masters thesis on developing auditory and visual instructions for an online screener of cognitive impairments in children with NDDs. The goal of this research is to increase accessibility to cognitive evaluations for children and families, in order to help identify at-risk children with NDDs. 
Caitlin Leachman, B.A., is a second year MA student in the counselling psychology program, supervised by Dr. Emma Duerden and Dr. Diane Seguin. She is investigating the behavioral characteristics of anxiety unique to youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This construct is termed ASD-specific anxiety. During her undergraduate degree at Vancouver Island University, she focused her studies on self-sabotaging behaviors in adult romantic relationships. She is excited to begin working with youth, and to ultimately aid in the development of effective treatments for youth with ASD-specific anxiety.
Homa Vahidi, BSc is a first year MSc student in the Neuroscience program, co-supervised by Emma Duerden and Yalda Mohsenzadeh. She is interested in uncovering how the brain develops to facilitate social and motor interactions with the outside world. During her undergraduate degree at Western University, Homa focused on using fNIRS to study hand-object interactions in adults. Building on her fNIRS background, Homa is now combining fNIRS and computational techniques to study neural processes in healthy infants.
Amber-Lee Di Paolo, BSc is a first year Master’s student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. She completed her undergraduate degree at McGill University in Psychology. Her previous work focused on the association between prenatal maternal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and postpartum anxiety, as moderated by three protective psychological factors. Now, she is currently conducting her Master’s thesis on the relationships between prenatal stress, infant brain volumes, and social-emotional development throughout the pandemic in Canada.
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Sarah Al-Saoud, BA is completing her Masters in Education in the Field of School and Applied Child Psychology and is conducted research on neuromelanin imaging in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
​Lauren MacIntyre is an undergraduate student pursuing an Honours Specialization in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. She is currently completing her thesis on media screen time use in adolescents and the association with the social brain network using fNIRS. She is interested in pursuing graduate school after her undergraduate degree.
Kylie Mercado is an undergraduate student pursuing an Honours Specialization in Psychology at Western University. She is currently doing her thesis on the effects of screen-time usage on the social brain of adolescence. She is interested in pursuing graduate school in Clinical or Counselling psychology.

additional Research TEam 

Lilian M N Kebaya, MD, MMed, MSc is a paediatrician and neonatologist. She completed both her fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and her Masters in Neuroscience at Western University. Lilian is passionate about neonatal care and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Lilian's research interests revolve around neonatal brain injury and outcomes. In the long term, she is keen on fostering training and research collaborations.  

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Ella Christiaans, BA graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from McGill University in 2020 and is currently completing an MEd in Educational Psychology at McGill University. She is currently helping to create, promote, and coordinate studies in the Developing Brain Lab.
Brian Krivoruk, BSc, is an MSc Student in the Neuroscience program at Western University and a research assistant in the Developing Brain Lab. He completed his Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Western University in 2022, where he studied human memory and cognition. He is currently interested in using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the brain activity of paediatric ICU patients who are at risk of Delirium.    
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Research Nurses 

​Paige MeyerinK, RN

Julia Parks, RN

Christine Grafe, RN

ALUMNI

RACHEL THORBURN, RESEARCH ASSISTANT 
​​ANN CLENDENNING, RESEARCH ASSISTANT
​NOAH BRIERLY, RESEARCH ASSISTANT​
​​ WENYU HUANG, M.ED​
EMMA TRUFFYN, RESEARCH ASSISTANT
JIANAN WANG, MESc STUDENT
JIARUI YANG, BSc, UNDERGRADUATE THESIS STUDENT
SARA PAC, MSc STUDENT
MATTHEW WANG, BSc STUDENT
ALISSA PAPADOPOULOS, MA STUDENT
AMIRA HMIDAN, MA STUDENT
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