a blue sesame street character giving a thumbs up with his mouth open ALT: a blue sesame street character giving a thumbs up with his mouth open

So excited to hear about our lab’s research assistants (FOUR of them) getting into grad school!!!

I wish systems animal work focused more on developmental change because I think that is how we can better tease apart relevant similarities and differences in circuitry - especially as it relates to neurodevelopmental disorders.

A human electrophysiological signature of Fragile X pathophysiology is shared in V1 of Fmr1-/y mice - Nature Communications Kornfeld-Sylla et al reveal how alpha brainwaves are altered in children and adults with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and find parallel changes in alpha-like rhythms in juvenile and adult FXS model mice, ...

Coming from the animal world and now working in the human world, I’ve tried to focus on genetic disorders; resting state EEG; simple passive sensory tasks in the context of development. Recent collab w Mark Bear lab nicely brought mouse and human work together - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎉 PINE Lab is hiring a postbacc Research Coordinator! Projects include cohort studies examining brain mechanisms linking adversity to cognition/language & RCTs of early interventions on neurodevelopment.
apply: forms.gle/Dyay39x2XEMn...
more info: www.plasticityinneurodevelopmentlab.com/join-us

Immigrant Rapid Response Fund The Immigrant Rapid Response Fund (IRRF) was created by a group of philanthropic leaders close to the communities most impacted to ensure that resources move quickly and responsibly during immigration...

If you’re able

Immigrant Rapid Response Fund (Women’s Foundation of MN) www.wfmn.org/funds/immigr...
VEAP Food Shelf veap.org
International Institute of Minnesota iimn.org/how-to-help/
GiveMN (to find MN nonprofits)
www.givemn.org

Minnesota is amazing because of its people.Let’s take care of them.

The shingles vaccine has demonstrated in what is now a 4th replication that it results in a ~20% reduction in dementia. This is better than any drug ever designed and tested for Alzheimer’s.

The DIM C-BRAINS international PhD program opens its 2026 call for applications. | Paris Brain Institute The international DIM C-BRAINS PhD program is back. Up for grabs: 7 fully funded, 3-year doctoral contracts in the Île-de-France region, 3 of which will be hosted by the Institut du Cerveau. Applicati...

📚 The international DIM C-BRAINS PhD program is back!

Up for grabs: 7 fully funded, 3-year doctoral contracts in the Île-de-France region, 3 of which will be hosted by Paris Brain Institute.

📆 Application deadline: February 1, 2026.

👉 Find out more: parisbraininstitute.org/dim-c-brains...

Income insufficiency impacts early #brain development in infants facing increased psychosocial adversity: A network-based approach Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 2, January 2026. SignificanceThis paper demonstrates the key role of adversity on the earliest stages of postnatal brain development. Data from the Baby Steps study, an ongoing longitudinal study collecting electroencephalography (EEG) and socioeconomic status related ...

Income insufficiency impacts early #brain development in infants facing increased psychosocial adversity: A network-based approach @PNAS.org

The NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left “We can no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity,” write four scientists and administrators who recently resigned from the NIH.

Powerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned

www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n...

1/3

Money stress may slow early brain development in babies Babies in financially stressed households show slower brain development, highlighting the importance of income stability early in life.

Money stress may slow early brain development in babies: www.earth.com/news/money-s...

Thanks to great collaboration with Chuck Nelson and Kathleen Conroy @bostonchildrens.bsky.social and with @htagerf.bsky.social at Boston University.

SNAP and WIC are important. Yes, I know we don’t show that directly and there is lots more work to be done. But when these services suddenly end, I now worry even more about long term impacts on children.

These findings underscore the potential importance of policies and supports that help families meet basic needs during this critical window of early brain development.

When we examined EEG periodic power spectra across the first year, striking differences in alpha and beta activity emerged based on income sufficiency. These are features known to track with age and cognitive functioning.

Exploratory Graph Analysis revealed three interconnected domains—SES, stress, and brain activity—with income insufficiency acting as a central bridge.

Findings are from 293 infants who completed 667 EEGs from 4 to 12 months old. 72% were publicly insured, 50% were living in single-parent households. 25% of parents reported “never” or “rarely” having sufficient income to meet their family’s needs. 40% reported moderate to high levels of stress.

In Baby Steps, we are collecting EEG during routine pediatric visits to explore how these overlapping factors relate to brain development and later outcomes, especially for children growing up in homes with limited resources. Bringing research into the clinic helped families participate.

We know early stress can shape brain development, but families rarely face just one challenge at a time. Income, education, and caregiver stress are deeply connected, which makes it hard to identify which factors matter most for early brain development.

Sharing our recent sobering publication: Income Insufficiency Impacts Early Brain Development In Infants Facing Increased Psychosocial Adversity: A Network-based Approach. Great work by postdoc Haerin Chung and proud of our Baby Steps Study team. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2513598123

Thanks for Graham H for helping make over 30 of these! They were a hit!

Really happy with this years lab gift! Feeling like this brain guy is going to bring joy throughout the year.

A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.

A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪

I guess I am hitting a nerve, because they just put me on admin leave. TikTok video by Jenna

Trump’s HHS put me on “non-disciplinary” admin leave today. This was retaliation for speaking up. Moves like this are designed to silence us. Let’s not let.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Dteoop/

Happy Halloween from the Wilkinson Lab Library!

thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Clinical Research Assistant I- Baby Steps Careers at Boston Children’s Hospital will help you reach your goals – both in and out of the workplace.

We are hiring a Spanish-speaking research assistant for our Baby Steps Study - great opportunity for a pre-med or pre-grad postbac interested in working in the area of child neurodevelopment. Please share! jobs.bostonchildrens.org/job/22060807...

NIH just posted a Notice with the new Terms and Conditions...

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Please share: Opportunity for soon to be graduating grad students with an interest in neurodevelopment and mental health - our T32 postdoc program in neurodevelopmental disorders at Boston Children’s is accepting applications: rsztnc.org/wp-content/u...

Check out this paper! @ccclements.bsky.social dug deep into understanding EEG differences in Tuberous Sclerosis and teasing apart effects of seizures and seizure meds on EEG power spectra. Important implications for EEG use in clinical trials. What a fun collaboration!

As always - huge thanks to the many many families who participated and the research staff and students who collected data over the years. Excited about our next steps.