Studies related to childhood

Narrative Engagement in Children

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

Children routinely engage in listening activities where they are required to sustain their attention and listen carefully so that they can incorporate things they have heard to understand future events. This includes classroom listening, story time with family members, or social communication with friends. In the current study, we are hoping to study how children maintain their attention in these types of listening scenarios, and how this relates to things like working memory across children.

Sensory processing in development and in autism

Online & Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

How we perceive the world greatly impacts how we interact with it. Sensory perception is known to change throughout development and to be different in children with developmental disorders such as autism. This study will explore the developmental trajectory of how we perceive the world, how the development of sensory processing differs in autism, and what the neural underpinnings of this typical and atypical development are.

Brain Function and Media Use in Adolescence

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

During the pandemic, school closures and high levels of parent distress resulted in children and adolescents reporting high levels of anxiety and depression, which has been associated with increased hours spent watching screens. The current study seeks to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to examine whether increased teen media screen time use is associated with social, cognitive, and mental health concerns and whether that is related to neurological functioning.

Typical and Atypical Development of Compensation to Altered Auditory Feedback

Elborn College (EC)

Early detection of speech, language, and hearing disorders is critical for optimizing outcomes. One great challenge is the early detection of developmental language disorder (DLD). Children with DLD struggle to comprehend what is said to them and express themselves verbally. We are interested in studying how the brains of children process what they hear, comparing typically developing children with children with DLD to improve early identification.

Peer Study

Westminster Hall (WH)

The PEAR Lab at Western University is conducting a study to examine associations between peer relationships and eating disorders among female adolescents.

Females

Adolescents 13 to 17 years old

Healthy volunteers and volunteers with eating disorders