Understanding how key neural circuits mature in typical development and how these processes go awry in atypical development is critical to the identification and treatment of mental health disorders. Thus, my laboratory bridges clinical, developmental, and neuroscience approaches to delineate the biological state of the developing brain to more effectively treat mental illness. My program of research aims to characterize typical and atypical frontolimbic trajectories across development, elucidate how early environments (e.g., early-life stress) and genetic factors influence sensitive periods in neurodevelopment and risk for psychopathology, and translate knowledge of brain development to optimize clinical interventions for affective psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. A central focus of this work is the nature and development of emotional behavior and related connections between limbic and prefrontal regions in children and adolescents with anxiety and stress-related disorders.
