Mission
The mission of the DCN Lab is to understand the interaction of cognitive, social and affective aspects of typical and atypical development with the ultimate aim to translate basic research into clinical and educational practice and improve the quality of life of children, young people and their families.
Aims
Research in our lab encompasses a range of topics in Developmental Neuroscience. Our overall research aim is to develop a better understanding of typical and atypical socio-cognitive processes underlying child behaviour and translate this knowledge to real-life applications enhancing wellbeing in children and young people and reducing the risk for psychopathology.
The DCN Lab consists of a Social and Affective Neuroscience research stream and a Cognitive Neuroscience research stream.
Developmental Social and Affective Neuroscience
Our affective neuroscience research programme focuses on the neurobiology of social cognition and emotion processing in typical and atypical development. We have specialist expertise in the development of vocal emotion processing. Our research aims to understand the neural basis of emotion and reward processing in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Our aim is to utilise this knowledge to inform preventive intervention and promote positive mental health in children and young people.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Our cognitive neuroscience research programme cuts across a number of topics including cognitive development, the development and use of language and nonverbal communication in children and young people. Research in our lab investigates how speech and gesture come together to form language during development and how multimodal interaction advances our understanding of cognition and language. We are also interested in the development of implicit learning and second language learning in children. Our research has implications for educational settings and can contribute to our understanding of impairments in cognition and language.