Lab Director
KATHLEEN THOMAS, PH.D.
Dr. Kathleen Thomas, Director of the CDN Lab, is a Professor of Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development. Her research addressees the development of learning, memory, and attention processes in infancy and childhood. In particular, she is interested in the neurobiological bases of cognitive and emotional functions. Her work involves behavioral measures as well as high density electrophysiology (EEG), and structural, function, and diffusion tensor MRI.
Recent projects in the CDN Lab have focused on 1) the development of implicit learning and unaware forms of cognition, 2) the impact of early brain insults on the development of learning, memory, and inhibitory control, and 3) the development of brain systems supporting emotion processing in typical and atypical populations.
In addition to her primary areas of interest, Dr. Thomas has several collaborations with colleagues both locally and around the world addressing diverse topics such as emotion processing in psychiatric populations, the brain response to violent media exposure, and the cognitive and brain consequences of prematurity and birth complications.