Our laboratory studies relationships between brain and behavior during development. Currently, we are studying neuroimmune system changes that account for deleterious effects on brain and behavior of early chronic low-level lead exposure. We augment our animal research with studies that explore associations among neurocognitive functions that appear to be particularly vulnerable to chronic low-level lead exposure, including attention, inhibition, working memory and fine motor dexterity. Our translational research integrates goals from the fields of cognitive neuroscience, neuroimmunology and neuropsychology, and uses results from child studies to inform our animal models.
Child low-level lead exposure
A Bland–Altman Comparison of the Lead Care® System and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry for Detecting Low-Level Lead in Child Whole Blood Samples (with Tanner Schaub Ph.D., Natali Parisi Ph.D., and Eva de la Riva B.A.), Journal of Medical Toxicology (2011)
Chronic childhood lead exposure, yielding blood lead levels consistently below 10 μg/dL, remains a major...
δ-Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase Single Nucleotide Polymorphism 2 and Peptide Transporter 2*2 Haplotype May Differentially Mediate Lead Exposure in Male Children (with Natali Parisi Ph.D., Tanner Schaub Ph.D., Marisela Gutierrez M.A., and Alma X. Ortega MPH), Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (2011)
Child low-level lead (Pb) exposure is an unresolved public health problem and an unaddressed child...
Polymorphisms of delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) and peptide transporter 2 (PEPT2) genes in children with low-level lead exposure (with Marisela Gutierrez and Heather Alterio), Neurotoxicology (2009)
Low-level lead exposure during early childhood has long been associated with altered neurocognitive development and...
Genes and Neurocognition
Sex differences in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome (with Karen Kiley Brabeck, Samantha Hadley Monk, and Jananne Khuri), Psychiatry Research (2009)
High rates of psychiatric impairment in adults with 22q11DS suggest that behavioral trajectories of children...
Olfactory Disorder in Children with the 22q11 Deletion Syndrome (with Karen Kiley-Brabeck, Kathryn Dale, Samantha Hadley Monk, Jananne Khuri, and Maria Karayiorgou), Pediatrics (2006)
OBJECTIVE. 22q11 deletion syndrome, a common human interstitial deletion syndrome
(1:5000), is associated with a...
Neuromotor deficits in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome (with Samantha H. Monk, Karen Kiley-Brabeck, and Jananne Khuri), Movement Disorders (2006)
The 22q11 chromosomal deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is associated with a heterogeneous physical phenotype, neurocognitive deficits,...
Associations between prepulse inhibiton and visual executive attention in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome (with Karen Kiley-Brabeck and Maria Karayiorgou), Molecular Psychiatry (2005)
The 22q11 deletion syndrome (DS) results in the loss of approximately 30 gene copies and...
Lower pre-pulse inhibition in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome (with Karen Kiley-Brabeck and Maria Karayiorgou), American Journal of Psychiatry (2005)
Objective: The 22q11 deletion syndrome
is associated with a range of possible physical
anomalies, probable...
Phenotypic Characterization of Mental Disease
A comparison study of early non-psychotic deviant behavior in Afrikaner and US patients with schizphrenia and schizoaffective disorder (with Lou Roos, Hermann Pretorius, Laura Lundy, and Maria Karayiorgou), Psychiatry Research (2003)
Early non-psychotic deviant behavior in schizophrenia: a possible endophenotypic marker for genetic studies (with Maude Blundell, Annamae Conry, Fenia Weiller, Carrie Gavigan, Claire Haiman, and Maria Karayiorgou), Psychiatry Research (2001)
Evidence of a schizotypy subtype in OCD (with Maude Blundell, Fenia Weiller, Carrie Gavigan, and Claire Haiman), Journal of Psychiatric Research (2000)
Phenotypic differences in early and later onset OCD (with Maude Blundell and Maria Karayiorgou), Comprehensive Psychiatry (2000)
The Phenotypic Characteristics of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Ascertained in Adulthood, Journal of Psychiatric Research (1999)
Neuromotor Symptoms in Mental Illness
The Motor Agitation and Retardation Scale: a scale for the assessment of motor abnormalities in depressed patients (with Lauren Mayer and Jean Endicott), Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (1998)
The Psychomotor Symptoms of Depression (with Harold Sackeim), American Journal of Psychiatry (1997)
No subject area
Microglial Disruption in Young Mice with Early Chronic Exposure to Lead (with Mayra Gisel Flores Montoya M.A.; Natali Parisi Ph.D.; Tanner Schaub Ph.D.; Miguel Cervantes B.S.; and Rodrigo Xavier Armijos M.D., ScD), Toxicology Letters (2013)
The mechanisms by which early chronic lead (Pb) exposure alters brain development have not been...