Kevin Pelphrey PhD
Harris Associate Professor in the Child Study Center and Associate Professor of Psychology; Director of the Child Neuroscience Laboratory
Research Interests
brain mechanisms; child development; neurodevelopmental disorders
Research Summary
Work in Dr. Pelphrey's laboratory focuses on discovering brain
mechanisms underlying the development of different aspects of social
cognition including social perception (the initial stages of evaluating
the intentions and goals of others by analysis of biological motion
cues), theory of mind (the ability to make inferences about the mental
states of others), and the perception and regulation of emotion. This
work employs cognitive neuroscience methods including functional and
structural magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging,
imaging genetics, visual scanpath recordings, and virtual reality
techniques.
The laboratory conducts studies focused on fundamental
questions regarding the typical and atypical development of social
cognition in children with and without autism spectrum disorders and
other neurodevelopmental disorders. By studying the normal ontogeny of
the brain mechanisms underlying social cognition and the abnormal
development of these mechanisms in children with autism and other
neurodevelopmental disorders, the Pelphrey laboratory is working to
uncover the building blocks for complex, multi-faceted, social
cognitive abilities.
Dr. Pelphrey has received a Scientist Career Development
Award from the National Institutes of Health, a John Merck Scholars
Award for his work on the biology of developmental disorders, and the
American Psychological Association's Boyd McCandless Award for
distinguished early career theoretical contributions to Developmental
Psychology. His research program is funded by the National Institutes
of Health, the Simons Foundation, Autism Speaks, and the National
Science Foundation.
Selected Publications
- Saxe, R., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Scholz, J., Pelphrey, K. A. (2009). Brain Regions for Perceiving and Reasoning About Other People in School-Aged Children, Child Development, 80, 1197-1209.
- Vander Wyk, B. C., Hudac, C. M., Carter, E. J., Sobel, D. M., Pelphrey, K. A. (2009). Action understanding in the superior temporal sulcus region. Psychological Science, 20, 771-777.
- Cantlon, J. F., Libertus, M. E., Pinel, P., Dehaene, S., Brannon, E. M., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2008). The neural development of an abstract concept of number. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Electronic publication ahead of print on November 18th, 2008.
- Libertus, M. E., Brannon, E. M., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2008). Developmental changes in category-specific brain responses to numbers and letters in a working memory task. NeuroImage, 44, 1404-1414.
- Perlman, S. B., Camras, L. C., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2008). Physiology and functioning: Parents' vagal tone, emotion socialization, and children's emotion knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100, 308-315.
