Research Teams
SAND Lab
Social and Affective Neuroscience in Development (SAND) – Led by Dr. Chiara Bulgarelli
Within the SAND team, we’re fascinated by one of life’s most remarkable journeys: how babies and young children grow into social beings.
INDIE Lab
Investigating NeuroDevelopment in Early Childhood (INDIE) – Led by Dr. Virginia Carter Leno
At INDIE Lab, our team studies how differences in brain and cognitive functioning drive individual differences in behaviour.
Vaghi Lab
– Led by Dr. Matilde Vaghi
Our research aims to uncover the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying psychiatric conditions, with a particular focus on the dimension of compulsivity.
MitoMIND Lab
Mitochondria & Metabolism In Neuro Development (MitoMIND) – Led by Dr. Maheen Siddiqui
At MitoLab, we explore one of the most fundamental questions in early brain development: how does the brain use energy to grow, specialise, and support behaviour?
BOND Group
Building the Ontogeny of NeuroDiversity (BOND) Group – Led by Prof. Emily Jones
Our research interests centre on understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms that drive variability in the developmental trajectories of young children.
Genomics, Behaviour and Education Group
– Led by Dr. Emma Meaburn
We apply contemporary genomics to explore how DNA sequence variation influences child development, and how these genetic effects are mediated by social factors.
Auditory Neuroscience Lab
– Led by Prof. Adam Tierney
We study the neural and cognitive mechanisms that make it possible to perceive and produce speech and music throughout the lifespan.
Context Lab
– Led by Prof. Natasha Kirkham
The Context Lab studies the role of the environment in infant and child development.
Physical Cognition Lab
– Led by Prof. Ori Ossmy
We study how humans’ physical and embodied experiences shape their cognition and behaviour across the lifespan.
Associate Labs
CINELab
The Cognition in Naturalistic Environments (CINE) Lab focuses on the investigation of active audiovisual scene cognition in real-world and mediated environments such as VR, smartphones and film, and how these skills develop across early childhood.
Birkbeck-UCL Centre for NeuroImaging
BUCNI provides state of the art magnetic imaging facilities for Birkbeck and UCL staff, and promotes inter-institutional collaboration and innovation.
Centre for Educational Neuroscience
We are a University-led research centre, combining the expertise of researchers in child development, neuroscience, and education.
Shared Space Labs
Brain and Behaviour Lab
We study perception, attention, and sensorimotor processes. We investigate cognitive and brain mechanisms and the disruption of these processes caused by brain damage or atypical development.
