Research Interests
My primary research is in specialisation of the brain to auditory sensory input and how we can relate this process to later language acquisition and emergence of the social brain networks. This was the primary focus of our longitudinal study (GABBLES), where we measure different aspects of development in typically developing infants using EEG, eye-tracking, and behavioural assessments. Using time-frequency and coherence analyses we hope to understand how early changes in functional specificity relate to later behaviour. In addition, we want to extend this model to the ongoing study of infants at high familial risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD | BASIS), and those with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1 | EDEN), who experience high incidence of ASD.
My postgraduate studies were funded by ESCR 1+3 DTC studentship.
Education
MPhil/PhD Psychology - under the supervision of Profs Emily Jones and Mark Johnson
Birkbeck, University of London
2016 - 2020
MSc Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology (Distinction)
Birkbeck, University of London
2015 - 2016
BSc Psychology (1st Class Hons)
University of Sheffield
2012 - 2015
Publications
Kolesnik, A. M., Begum Ali, J., and Gliga, T., Guiraud, J., Charman, T., Johnson, M. H. and Jones, E. J.H. (2019) Increased cortical reactivity to repeated tones at 8 months in infants with later ASD. Translational Psychiatry 9 (1), p. 46. ISSN 2158-3188.
Kolesnik, A. M., Jones, E. J. H., Garg, S., Green, J., Charman, T., & Johnson, M. H. (2017). Early development of infants with neurofibromatosis type 1: a case series. Molecular Autism, 8(1), 62.
Conference Proceedings
(posters)
Kolesnik, A.M., Begum Ali, J., Gliga, T., Guiraud, J., Charman, T., Jones, E.J.H, Johnson, M.H., & BASIS team. Elevated cortical reactivity auditory repetition at 8 months in infants with ASD. INSAR, Rotterdam, 2018.
Wan, M.W., Garg, S., Kolesnik, A.M., Jones, E.J.H, Green, J., Johnson, M.H. & EDEN-BASIS team. Parent-infant interaction in infants with Neurofibromatosis Type 1. INSAR, Rotterdam, 2018.
Kolesnik, A.M., Begum Ali, J., Gliga, T., Guiraud, J., Charman, T., Jones, E.J.H, Johnson, M.H., & BASIS team.Reduced habituation of auditory gamma in infancy indexes ASD risk and language difficulty at 3 years. MPaL, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 2017.
Kolesnik, A.M., Howsley, P., Waller, G., & Levita, L. Relationship between risk taking and anxiety in children, adolescents and adults ; BPS Annual Conference, Liverpool, 2015.
Research Posts
Research Assistant
Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Sheffield
2014
Links
Email: akoles01@mail.bbk.ac.uk
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kolesnik-99ba7179?trk=nav_responsive_t…