Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
School of Psychology, Birkbeck College
Henry Wellcome Building, London WC1E 7HX
Phone: +44 (0)20 7631 6325
Fax: +44 (0)20 7631 6587
Email: l.tucker at bbk dot ac dot uk
Research Interests
As well as heading up the research support team at the CBCD, I provide expertise on lab requirements on Centre related building projects, assist in the development of new technologies for studying the infant brain, liaise with the media and other outside public bodies, and advise CBCD members on grant submissions and management.
Curriculum Vitae
1998 to present
Centre Coordinator, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London
1993-1998
Higher Scientific Officer, Medical Research Council, Cognitive Development Unit, London, UK
1991-1993
Laboratory Coordinator, Professor Mark Johnson's Infant Visual Attention Lab, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
1988-1990
Research Assistant, Professor Mary K. Rothbart and Professor Michael Posner's Infant Temperament and Attention Research project, Psychology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
Publications
Haartsen, R., Charman, T., Pasco, G. et al. Modulation of EEG theta by naturalistic social content is not altered in infants with family history of autism. Sci Rep 12, 20758 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24870-7
van Noordt S, Desjardins JA; BASIS Team; Elsabbagh M. Inter-trial theta phase consistency during face processing in infants is associated with later emerging autism. Autism Res. 2022 May;15(5):834-846. doi: 10.1002/aur.2701. Epub 2022 Mar 29. PMID: 35348304.
Huberty S, Carter Leno V, van Noordt SJR, Bedford R, Pickles A, Desjardins JA, Webb SJ; BASIS Team; Elsabbagh M. Association between spectral electroencephalography power and autism risk and diagnosis in early development. Autism Res. 2021 Jul;14(7):1390-1403. doi: 10.1002/aur.2518. Epub 2021 May 6. PMID: 33955195; PMCID: PMC8360065.
Pasco G, Davies K, Ribeiro H, Tucker L, Allison C, Baron-Cohen S, Johnson MH, Charman T; BASIS Team. (2021). Comparison of Parent Questionnaires, Examiner-Led Assessment and Parents' Concerns at 14 Months of Age as Indicators of Later Diagnosis of Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 51(3):804-813. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04335-z.
Ersoy M, Charman T, Pasco G, Carr E, Johnson MH, Jones EJH; BASIS Team. (2020). Developmental Paths to Anxiety in an Autism-Enriched Infant Cohort: The Role of Temperamental Reactivity and Regulation. J Autism Dev Disord. Oct 9. doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04734-7.
Godoy PBG, Shephard E, Milosavljevic B, Johnson MH, Charman T; BASIS Team. (2020). Brief Report: Associations Between Cognitive Control Processes and Traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Anxiety in Children at Elevated and Typical Familial Likelihood for ASD. J Autism Dev Disord. doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04732-9.
Gui A, Jones EJH, Wong CCY, Meaburn E, Xia B, Pasco G, Lloyd-Fox S, Charman T, Bolton P, Johnson MH; BASIS Team. (2020) Leveraging epigenetics to examine differences in developmental trajectories of social attention: A proof-of-principle study of DNA methylation in infants with older siblings with autism. Infant Behav Dev. 60:101409. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101409.
Shephard E, Milosavljevic B, Mason L, Elsabbagh M, Tye C, Gliga T, Jones EJ, Charman T, Johnson MH; BASIS Team. (2020). Neural and behavioural indices of face processing in siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): A longitudinal study from infancy to mid-childhood. Cortex. 127:162-179. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.02.008.
Bedford R, Gliga T, Hendry A, Jones EJH, Pasco G, Charman T, Johnson MH, Pickles A; BASIS Team. (2019). Infant regulatory function acts as a protective factor for later traits of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder but not callous unemotional traits. J Neurodev Disord. 11(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s11689-019-9274-0.
Haartsen R, Jones EJH, Orekhova EV, Charman T, Johnson MH; BASIS Team. (2019). Functional EEG connectivity in infants associates with later restricted and repetitive behaviours in autism; a replication study. Transl Psychiatry. 9(1):66. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0380-2.
Kolesnik A, Begum Ali J, Gliga T, Guiraud J, Charman T, Johnson MH, Jones EJH; BASIS Team. (2019). Increased cortical reactivity to repeated tones at 8 months in infants with later ASD. Transl Psychiatry. 9(1):46. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0393-x.
Shephard E, Bedford R, Milosavljevic B, Gliga T, Jones EJH, Pickles A, Johnson MH, Charman T; BASIS Team. (2019). Early developmental pathways to childhood symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and autism spectrum disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 60(9):963-974. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12947.
Cheung CHM, Bedford R, Johnson MH, Charman T, Gliga T; BASIS Team. (2018). Visual search performance in infants associates with later ASD diagnosis. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 29:4-10. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2016.09.003.
Doherty BR, Charman T, Johnson MH, Scerif G, Gliga T; BASIS Team. (2018). Visual search and autism symptoms: What young children search for and co-occurring ADHD matter. Dev Sci. (5):e12661. doi: 10.1111/desc.12661.
Vernetti, A., Ganea, N., Tucker, L., Charman, T., Johnson, M. H,, & Senju, A. (2018). Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 34, 1-6.
Ganea, N., Hudry, K., Vernetti, A., Tucker, L., Charman, T., Johnson, M. H., & Senju, A. (2018). Development of adaptive communication skills in infants of blind parents. Developmental Psychology, 54, 2265-2273.
Vernetti, A., Senju, A., Charman, T., Johnson, M. H., Gliga, T., & the BASIS Team (2018). Simulating interaction: using gaze-contingent eye-tracking to measure the reward value of social signals in toddlers with and without autism, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 29, 21-29.
Hendry, A., Jones, E.J.H., Bedford, R., Gliga, T., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H., and the BASIS Team, (2018). Developmental change in look durations predicts later effortful control in toddlers at familial risk for ASD. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 10(1). doi: 10.1186/s11689-017-9219-4.
Lloyd-Fox, S., Blasi, A., Pasco, G., Gliga, T., Jones, E.J.H., Murphy, D.G.M. Elwell, C.E., Charmon, T., Johnson, M. H., and the BASIS Team (2017). Cortical responses before 6 months of life associate with later autism. European Journal of Autsim. doi: 10.1111/ejn.13757
Kolesnik, A. M., Jones, E.J.H., Garg, S. Green, J., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H., and the BASIS Team (2017). Early development of infants with neurofibromatosis type 1: a case series. Molecular Autism. doi: 10.1186/s13229-017-0178-0
Green, J., Pickles, A., Pasco, G., Bedford, R., Wan, M. W., Elsabbagh, M., Slonims, V., Gliga, T., Jones, E.J.H., Cheung, C.H.M, Charman, T., Johnson, M. H., and the BASIS Team (2017). Randomised trial of a parent-mediated intervention for infants at high risk for autism: longitudinal outcomes to age 3 years, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12728
Milosavljevic, B., Shephard, E., Happe, F.G., Johnson, M.H., Charman, T., and the BASIS Team (2017). Anxiety and Attentional Bias to Threat in Children at Increased Familial Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-3012-1
Cheung, C., Bedford, R., Johnson, M.H., Charman, T., Gliga, T. and the BASIS Team. (2016). Visual search performance in infants associates with later ASD diagnosis. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12328
Shephard, E., Milosavljevic, B., Pasco, G., Jones, E.J.H., Gliga, T., Happe, F., Johnson, M.H., Charman, T. & the BASIS Team (2016). Mid-childhood outcomes of infant siblings at familial high risk of autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research DOI: 10.1002/aur.1733
Gammer, I., Bedford, R., Elsabbagh, M, Garwood, H., Pasco, G., Tucker, L.A., Volein, A., Johnson, M. H., Charman, T. and the BASIS Team (2015). Behavioural markers for autism in infancy: scores on the Autism Observational Scale for infants in a prospective study of at-risk siblings. Infant Behavior and Development 38, pp. 107-115. ISSN 0163-6383.
Gliga, T., Bedford, R., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. & the BASIS Team (2015). Enhanced visual search in infancy predicts emerging autism symptoms. Current Biology, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.011 (paper awarded BPS Neil O’Conner Award 2016)
Gliga, T., Smith, T.J., Gilhooly, N., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. & the BASIS Team (2015). Early visual foraging in relationship to familial risk for autism and hyperactivity/inattention. Journal of Attention Disorders, doi: 10.1177/1087054715616490
Green, J., Charman, T., Pickles, A., Wai Wan, M., Elsabbagh, M., Slomins, V., Taylor, C., McNally, J., Booth, R., Gliga, T., Jones, E.J.H, Harrop, C., Bedford, R., Johnson, M.H., & the BASIS Team (2015). Parent-mediated intervention versus no intervention for infants at high-risk of autism: A parallel, single-blind, randomised trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2, 133-140 (Comment: Infant autism: parents’ role in ameliorating risk? The Lancet Psychiatry, 2, 112-113) (SFARI top ten Autism papers of 2015; Autism Speaks top ten Autism papers of 2015). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00091-1
Senju, A., Vernetti, A., Ganea, N., Hudry, K., Tucker, L., Charman, T., & Johnson, M.H. (2015). Early Social Experience Affects the Development of Eye Gaze Processing. Current Biology, 25, 3086-3091.
Tye, C., Farroni, T. Volein, A., Mercure, E., Tucker. L., Johnson, M.H. & Bolton, P. (2015). Autism diagnosis differentiates neurophysiological responses to faces in adults with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 7, 33 DOI 10.1186/s11689-015-9129-2.
Wass, S.V., Jones, E.J.H. and Gliga, T. and Smith, T.J. and Charman, T. and Johnson, M.H. and Baron-Cohen, S. and Bedford, R. and Bolton, P. and Chandler, S. and Davies, K. and Fernandes, J. and Garwood, H. and Hudry, K. and Maris, H. and Pasco, G. and Pickles, A. and Ribiero, H. and Tucker, L. and Volein, Agnes (2015). Shorter spontaneous fixation durations in infants with later emerging autism. Scientific Reports 5, p. 8284. ISSN 2045-2322.
Bedford, R., Pickles, A., Gliga, T., Elsabbagh, M., Charman. T. Johnson, M.H. and the BASIS Team (2014). Additive effects of social and non-social attention during infancy relate to later autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Science, 17, 612-620.
De Klerk, Carina C.J.M. and Gliga, Teodora and Charman, T. and Johnson, Mark H. and The BASIS Team, (2014). Face engagement during infancy predicts later face recognition ability in younger siblings of children with autism. Developmental Science 17 (4), 596-611. ISSN 1363-755x.
Elsabbagh, M., Bedford, R., Senju, A., Charman, T., Pickles, A., Johnson, M. H., & The BASIS Team (2014). What you see is what you get: Contextual modulation of face scanning in typical and atypical development, Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 538-543.
Elsabbagh, M., Baruno, R., Wan, M.W., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H., Green, J., & the BASIS Team (2014). Infant neural sensitivity to dynamic gaze relates to quality of parent-infant interaction at 7 months in infants at-risk for autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s108003-014-2192-9
Gliga, T., Senju, A., Pettinato, M., Charman, T., Johnson, M. & the BASIS Team (2014). Spontaneous Belief Attribution in Younger Siblings of Children on the Autism Spectrum. Developmental Psychology, 50, 903-913.
Leonard, H.C., Bedford, R., Charman, T., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M.H., Hill, E.L. and the BASIS Team (2014). Motor development in children at-risk for autism: A follow-up of infant siblings. Autism, 18, 281-291.
Elsabbagh, M., Fernandes, J., Webb, S.J., Dawson, G., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. & the BASIS Team (2013). Disengagement of Visual Attention in Infancy Is Associated with Emerging Autism in Toddlerhood. Biological Psychiatry. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.11.030
Elsabbagh, M., Gliga, T., Pickles, A., Hudry, K., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. & the BASIS Team (2013). The development of face orienting mechanisms in infants at-risk for autism. Behavioural Brain Research, 251, 147-154.
Green, J., Wai-Wan, M., Guiraud, J., Holsgrove, S., McNally, J., Slomins, V., Elsabbagh, M., Charman, T., Pickles, A., Johnson, M.H. and the BASIS Team (2013). Intervention for infants at-risk of developing autism: A case series. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1797-8
Hudry, K., Chandler, S., Bedford, R., Pasco, G., Gliga, T., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M.H., Charman. T. and the BASIS Team (2013). Early language profiles in infants at high-risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1861-4
Leonard, H.C., Elsabbagh, M., Hill, E.L. and the BASIS Team (2013). Early and persistent motor difficulties in infants at-risk of developing autism spectrum disorder: A prospective study. European Journal of Developmental Psychology. doi: 10.1080/17405629.2013.801626
Senju, A., Tucker, L., Pasco, G., Hudry, K., Elsabbagh, M., Charman, T., & Johnson, M. H. (2013). The importance of the eyes: communication skills in infants of blind parents. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1760).
Wan, M. W., Green, J., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M., Charman, T.,
Plummer, F., and the BASIS Team. (2012). Parent-infant interaction in infant
siblings at risk of autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33, 924–932.
Bedford, R., Elsabbagh, M., Gliga, T., Pickles, A., Senju, A., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. and the BASIS Team. (2012) Precursors to social and communication difficulties in infants at-risk for autism: Gaze following and attentional engagement. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 2208-2218.
Bedford, R., Gliga, T., Frame, K., Hudry, K., Chandler, S., Johnson, M.H., Charman, T. and the BASIS Team (2012) Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at-risk for autism. Journal of Child Language, 40, 29-46.
Clifford, S.M., Hudry, K., Elsabbagh, M., Charman, T, Johnson, M.H. and the BASIS Team (2012). Temperament in the first two years of life in infants at high-risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1612-y
Elsabbagh, M., Mercure, E., Hudry, K., Chandler, S., Pasco, G., Charman, T., Pickles, A., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Johnson, M.H., & the BASIS Team. (2012) Infant neural sensitivity to dynamic eye gaze is associated with later emerging autism. Current Biology, 22, 338-342. (SFARI top ten autism papers of 2012: http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2012/brain-response-to-gaze-predicts-autism-in-baby-sibs) (see also; Current Biology, R127-R128, 21 February 2012; Nature, 491, S7-S9, Nov. 2012)
Gliga, T., Elsabbagh, M., Hudry, K., Charman, T., Johnson, M.H. & The BASIS Team (2012). Gaze following, gaze reading, and word learning in children at-risk for autism. Child Development. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01750.x
Guiraud, J.A., Tomalski, P., Kushnerenko, E., Ribeiro, H., Davies, K., Charman, T., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M.H. and the BASIS Team (2012). Atypical audiovisual speech integration in infants at-risk for autism. PLOS One, 7(5), e36428. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036428
Stahl, D., Pickles, A., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M.H. & The BASIS Team (2012). Novel machine learning methods for ERP analysis: A validation from research on infants at-risk for autism. Developmental Neuropsychology
Wai-Wan, M., Green J., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson M.H., Charman, T., Plummer, F. and the BASIS Team (2012). Quality of interaction between at-risk infants and caregiver at 12-15 months is associated with 3-year autism outcome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12032
Wai Wan, M., Green, J., Elsabbagh, M., Johnson, M.H., Charman, T., Plummer, F and the BASIS Team. (2012) Parent-infant interaction in infant siblings at risk of autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33, 924-932.
Elsabbagh, M., Holmboe, K., Gliga, T., Mercure, E., Hudry, K., Charman, T., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Johnson, M.H., & The BASIS Team. (2011). Social and attention factors during infancy and the later emergence of autism characteristics. Progress in Brain Research, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53884-0.00025-7.
Guiraud, J.A., Kushnerenko, E., Tomalski, P., Davies, K., Ribeiro, H., Johnson, M.H., and The BASIS Team (2011). Differential habituation to repeated sounds in infants at-risk for autism. NeuroReport, 22, 845-849.
Holmboe, K., Elsabbagh, M., Volein, A., Tucker, L.A., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Charman, T., and Johnson, M.H. (2010). Frontal cortex functioning in the infant broader autism phenotype. Infant Behavior & Development, doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.05.004.
Elsabbagh, M., Volein, A., Csibra, G., Holmboe, K., Garwood, H., Tucker, L., Krlijes, S., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Charman, T., Baird, G., and Johnson, M.H. (2009). Neural correlates of eye gaze processing in the infant broader autism phenotype. Biological Psychiatry, 65, 31-38.
Elsabbagh, M., Volein, A., Tucker, L., Holmboe, K., Csibra G., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Charman, T., Baird, G., and Johnson, M.H. (2009). Visual orienting in the early broader autism phenotype: Disengagement and facilitation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 637-642.
Holmboe, K., Fearon, P.M., Csibra, G., Tucker, L., and Johnson, M.H. (2008). "Freeze-Frame": A new infant inhibition task and its relation to frontal cortex tasks in infancy and early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100, 89-114.
Blasi, A, Lloyd-Fox, S., Everdell, N., Volein, A., Tucker, L., Csibra, G., Gibson, A.P., Hebden, J., Johnson, M.H., and Elwell, C.E. (2007). Investigation of depth dependent changes in cerebral haemodynamics during face perception in infants. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 52, 6849-6864.
Johnson, M.H., Griffin, R., Csibra, G., Halit, H., Farroni, T., de Haan, M., Tucker, L.A., Baron-Cohen, S. and Richards, J. (2005). The emergence of the social brain network: Evidence from typical and atypical development. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 599-619.
Csibra, G., Henty, J., Volein, A., Elwell, C., Tucker, L., Meek, J., & Johnson, M.H. (2004). Near infrared spectroscopy reveals neural activation during face perception in infants and adults. Journal of Pediatric Neurology, 2, 85-89.
Csibra, G., Tucker, L.A., & Johnson, M.H. (2001). Differential frontal cortex activation before anticipatory and reactive saccades in infants. Infancy, 2, 159-174.
Johnson, M.H., de Haan, M., Oliver, A., Smith, W., Hatzakis, H., Tucker, L.A., Csibra, G. (2001). Recording and analyzing high density ERPs with infants using the Geodesic Sensor Net. Developmental Neuropsychology, 19, 295-323.
Csibra, G., Tucker, L.A., Volein, Á., & Johnson, M.H. (2000). Cortical development and saccade planning: The ontogeny of the spike potential. NeuroReport, 11, 1069-1073.
Csibra, G., Tucker, L.A., & Johnson, M.H. (1998). Neural correlates of saccade planning in infants: A high-density ERP study. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 29, 201-215.
Johnson, M.H., Tucker, L.A., Stiles, J. and Trauner, D. (1998). Visual attention in infants with perinatal brain damage: Evidence of the importance of left anterior lesions. Developmental Science, 1, 53-58.
Csibra, G., Johnson, M.H., & Tucker, L.A. (1997). Attention and oculomotor control: A high-density ERP study of the gap effect. Neuropsychologia, 35, 855-865.
Johnson M.H. & Tucker L.A. (1996). The Development and Temporal Dynamics of Spatial Orienting in Infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 63, 171-188.
Johnson, M.H., Gilmore, R.O., Tucker, L.A. and Minister, S.L. (1996). Vector summation in young infants’ saccade planning. Brain and Cognition, 32, 237-243.