Congratulations to Brendan Ostlund for receiving an NIMH K99/R00 “Pathway To Independence” Award!

The K99 study examines the attentional and behavioral correlates of periodic and aperiodic activity in the infant brain, while investigating how trajectories of brain activity vary as a function of maternal distress from 8- to 24- months of age. The R00 study will expand on this foundational knowledge to examine whether dynamic fluctuations in a pregnant woman’s distress and health behaviors predict neural, cognitive, and behavioral difficulties in her infant. By charting normative and aberrant brain maturation, these studies will be the first to characterize the origins and trajectories of a cognitive mechanism that may underlie core attentional and behavioral dysfunctions from gestation through toddlerhood. Brendan’s mentorship team for this grant includes Drs. Koraly Pérez-Edgar, Rina Eiden, and Zita Oravecz at Penn State as well Drs. Catherine Monk (Columbia University) and Brad Voytek (UC San Diego).