The Project on Language and Spatial Development (https:/plsd.fiu.edu, PI: Dr. Shannon Pruden) and the Brain and Behavioral Development Lab (https:/bbdl.fiu.edu, PI: Dr. Bethany Reeb-Sutherland) were recently awarded a 2 million dollar NICHD grant to study individual differences in the development of neural changes related to typically-developing children’s spatial abilities between the ages of 4 to 6 years. The 4-year project will collect and analyze spatial navigation, eyeblink conditioning, and structural MRI data, from over 200 4- to 6-year-old children to begin to shed light on the role of hippocampal structure and function on children's ability to reorient and navigate in space. This project will fund a full-time post-doctoral scholar, a full-time project manager, 2 doctoral research assistants and part-time undergraduate research assistants.
