Elections

Rhodri Cusack is the Thomas Mitchell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, and Director of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. His team studies how the brain and mind develop in infants using neuroimaging and online testing. The goals are to understand healthy development and to provide tools for earlier diagnosis in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Rhodri studied physics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then obtained a PhD in psychology from the University of Birmingham. He was then a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, and then an Associate Professor at the Brain and Mind Institute of the University of Western Ontario. He joined Trinity College in 2017.

His research has been funded by the ERC, SFI, IRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, EPSRC, CIHR, and NSERC. He has 136 peer-reviewed publications.

Learn more about our team and its research at www.cusacklab.org

Involvement with FIT’NG: Has attended two annual conferences and has encouraged his students to become involved with FIT’NG. Is currently supporting FIT’NG committees with logistics for the upcoming conference in Dublin.

​Emma Duerden, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders. She is the scientific lead of the Developing Brain research program. She is an Associate Professor in Applied Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. She is also a Scientist in the Maternal, Fetal and Newborn Health Division at the Children’s Health Research Institute.

She has made significant contributions to fetal and neonatal imaging, particularly in the areas of early brain development, neurodevelopmental disorders, and the impact of environmental stressors. Through the application of advanced neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, fNIRS, and machine learning models, her research has led to a deeper understanding of brain connectivity and maturation in neonates. Her work focuses on at-risk populations, investigating how early brain injuries and environmental stress factors, such as prenatal maternal anxiety and early life adversity, affect brain structure and development. Her innovative use of imaging tools, including the development of specialized software for analyzing fetal and neonatal brain data may inform future interventions aimed at improving outcomes for vulnerable populations, particularly those at high risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Involvement with FIT’NG: Has attended one annual conference.

Dr. Courtney Filippi is an Assistant Professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Chicago and conducted her postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Mental Health and University of Maryland. Dr. Filippi’s research investigates the neural mechanisms that underlie early social-emotional development. To do so, her research pairs neuroscientific methods (MRI and EEG) with observational assessments and parent-reports of infant and toddler behavior. Much of her ongoing work is focused on delineating neurobehavioral pathways to developing anxiety. Her work illustrates the ways in which the infant brain provides unique insight into the temperamental origins of anxiety disorders. Over the years she has studied several aspects of emotional behavior (e.g., irritability), infant social cognitive development (i.e., action understanding), and cognitive skills (i.e., language development and cognitive control). Collectively, this body of work demonstrates her expertise in infancy and early childhood, the developing brain, and shows that the infant brain and behavior can shed unique insight into later life outcomes.

Involvement with FIT’NG: Has been actively involved in FIT’NG since its inception. Attended the first FIT’NG preconference workshop in 2019 and was a part of the FIT’NG operations team that helped to launch the society’s first independent conference. Has attended and been an active volunteer at every annual conference. Current co-chair of the Vision and Visibility Committee and member of the Sustainability and Advancement committee.

Nadège Roche-Labarbe was born in a rural area in the South-West of France. She was an undergrad in Biology at the University of Bordeaux and completed a Master’s in Cognitive and Integrative Neuroscience at the University of Toulouse. Her Doctoral work at the University of Amiens Medical School focused on studying the neurovascular response using simultaneous fNIRS and EEG in preterm neonates, in epileptic infants and children, and in animal models. Her postdoctoral training at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging (Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA, USA) focused on optical imaging methods for clinical and cognitive applications in premature and hospitalized neonates. As junior faculty at the University of Caen, back in France, she started focusing on finding neonatal endophenotypes of neurodevelopmental disorders. In parallel she completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Child Psychology, dedicating her clinical internships to child welfare institutions, and raised two children. She is now an Associate Professor at the University of Caen, and her team investigates the development of predictive coding in preterm neonates and how this relates to their neurodevelopmental outcome using longitudinal protocols and multimodal neuroimaging.

Involvement with FIT’NG: Has attended two annual conferences. Served as co-chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2024 conference and is the chair of the committee for the upcoming 2025 conference in Dublin.

Dr. Sylvester’s program of research focuses broadly on the development of functional brain networks in children with and without psychiatric disorders; and uses this information to develop and test novel treatments. He has led research that relates brain function (using functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) to psychiatric symptoms or psychiatric risk in newborn infants, young children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Sylvester has dual training that includes a PhD in neuroscience and MD training as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. Over the last couple of decades, Dr. Sylvester has used fMRI to elucidate functional brain network mechanisms of attention in healthy adults; and he has formulated, tested, and demonstrated support for a functional network model of anxiety disorders. Dr. Sylvester has led several studies that use fMRI and behavioral methods in children with and without anxiety disorders and other psychiatric illnesses. This work includes task-based fMRI of neonates in which variation in response to salient sound stimuli is related to risk trajectories for childhood anxiety disorders; and fMRI studies of executive function- and attention-related brain systems in children versus without anxiety disorders. Additional work involves testing novel computer-based cognitive training programs to retrain brain systems altered in pediatric anxiety disorders and reduce symptoms of anxiety.

Involvement with FIT’NG: Has been actively involved in FIT’NG since its inception. Has attended and been an active volunteer at every annual conference. Served as the co-chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the annual conference in 2022 and 2023.