Welcome to the DCAN labs! Our work focuses on advancing the understanding of brain development in health and disease. We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers trying to understand the basic principles of how the brain works across development, learn how brain-based disorders develop and progress across time, and engage underrepresented communities in academic medicine and research.
Our lab members have diverse training backgrounds and areas of expertise spanning the fields of neuroscience, developmental and clinical psychology, psychiatry, biomedical engineering, and computer science.
Most of our work at the University of Minnesota is done in partnership with the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB). To learn more about the institute, please visit midb.umn.edu.
We often try to explain the brain in terms of very simple concepts. But the reality is, to really understand the brain, you need to be able to understand complex behavior from multiple angles.
Damien Fair, PA-C, PhD, Director, Developmental Cognition and Neuroimaging Lab, 2020 MacArthur Fellow