Developmental cognitive neuroscience is the study of how the brain underlies the acquisition, refinement, and maintenance of complex cognitive and social abilities. This field is by definition interdisciplinary and merges the field of psychology and the tools of cognitive neuroscience within a developmental framework to explain human growth and behavior. The first decade of life is a period of rapid growth and brain development. There are many factors that can affect how children develop, yet little is known about how these factors impact health and other outcomes. 

Recent advances in technology and developments in research allow us to explore in more detail how factors interact with brain development to yield cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes. 

The Riggins lab is a data collection site for the NIH-funded HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, which is the largest long-term study of early brain and child development in the United States (hbcdstudy.org). The HBCD Research Consortium consists of 27 recruitment sites across the United States. These sites have established standardized and harmonized assessments of neurocognition, physical and mental health, social and emotional functions, and culture and environment. They also have established multimodal structural and functional brain imaging and bioassays. This study aims to generate a unique data resource from a large cohort of participants across the U.S and make this valuable data resource available for the scientific community for analysis and generation of scientific hypotheses for further study. At UMD, I oversee the MRI and biospecimen data collection from infants and toddlers. 

The “Baby Brains” VIP team will assist with data collection for the HBCD Study and learn to process and analyze the publicly available data. Skills acquired will include: MRI and biospecimen data collection, hands-on interaction with infants and families participating in research, developing an empirical research question, data analysis and interpretation.