Although the global pandemic has slowed his lab's data collection to a halt, COVID-19 has nothing on cognitive neuroscientist Damien Fair. In the middle of the global health crisis, he moved from Oregon Health & Science University to the University of Minnesota, began the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain in Minnesota, and won a MacArthur "Genius Grant." And though he cannot currently recruit participants for his developmental cognitive neuroscience studies, his data analysis is full steam ahead.

 

He is also already eyeing future areas of research, including the long-term impact of COVID-19. "With our research, we very much believe that some of the atypical trajectories in health start very early. And monster events like COVID induce a lot of stress, as well modifications in habits, environmental exposures, and health," Fair says. "All that is going to be critical in the next few years, to closely evaluate how this event in society is changing brain trajectories, to keep an eye on long-term health." Read our new Q&A with Damien Fair, including how he thinks the field of cognitive neuroscience is doing in addressing equity in science and academia.

 

 

Depression is twice as common at the lowest income levels than at the highest. People who are poor during childhood and become more affluent as adults continue to be at elevated risk.

 

As presented in a symposium at CNS 2020 Virtual this past May, early life socioeconomic status (SES) influences brain development in ways that have lifelong effects on our emotional responses and regulation. Chaired by Martha Farah (University of Pennsylvania), the symposium features four leaders in the affective neuroscience of SES, whose work spans brain activity in prenatal life, early childhood, later childhood to adulthood, and parent-child processes. Watch all the videos in our new playlist.