•  working memory, attention, inhibition, executive function, self-regulation

•  fMRI, genetics

•  ADHD, autism

•  infants, preschoolers, school-age children, aging

•  developmental psychology, cognition, motor development, vision

My field is developmental cognitive neuroscience. Our work integrates behavioural, neuroanatomical, and genetic approaches to study cognitive abilities dependent on prefrontal cortex (PFC) from their earliest beginnings throughout the lifespan in clinical and "normal" populations. Our methods include: neurocognitive testing, even of infants; functional neuroimaging (fMRI); preschool interventions; and molecular genetic analyses. The cognitive abilities dependent on PFC include inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and reasoning . We study their neural bases, their genetic and neurochemical modulation, their modification by the environment, and how they can become derailed in disorders. We hope our work might aid the understanding, prevention, and treatment of major mental disorders. Our work has already led to worldwide improvements in the treatment of a genetic disorder, thereby improving children's lives. Our research also has educational implications, such as why some children seem unable to master a cognitive skill and how they can be helped to master it.

Dissecting Executive Control Functions
Inhibitory control is being investigated in attention (the ability to ignore distracting stimuli) and in action (the ability resist making one response and instead make another) in steady state and in switching. Switching, or cognitive flexibility, is being investigated between tasks ("task switching"), between perspectives, and between instituting and reversing inhibition.

We hypothesize that these frontal lobe functions have distinct developmental trajectories, that those trajectories produce multiple vulnerable periods for injury, and that alterations in those trajectories contribute substantially to many disorders.

A preschool teaching program that enhances the development of executive functions and self-regulation
We are working with educators who have developed a remarkable and fun school program for 3-5 year olds that dramatically improves their attention regulation and ability to exercise self-control, and in so doing greatly improves their school achievement. We are instituting pilot programs in BC, investigating the outcomes in double-randomized designs, looking at possible long-term effects in reducing the incidence of ADHD and conduct disorder, and looking at the possibility of this program for ameliorating poverty's effects on children's development.

The effect of bilingualism on the development and preservation of inhibitory control and on the neural system
Bilingualism places heavy demands on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. Early bilingualism exerts pressure for the accelerated development of inhibition and of the neural system underlying that. Children only 4 & 5 years old, who are fluently bilingual, are 1-2 years ahead of monolingual children on cognitive tasks that require inhibiting distractors or prepotent responses. That effect is specific; they are not ahead on memory or IQ. Similarly, older adults who continue to be actively bilingual preserve executive functioning longer than monolingual older adults matched for IQ, SES, and health. Those differences in children and elders should be reflected at the neural level.

Autism and the development of relational awareness
We are investigating the hypothesis that children with autism have unusual difficulty grasping the relation between one item and another (e.g. between a stimulus object and a reward object), and that that is part of a more general problem in appreciating the relation between a symbol and its referent.

We have cut by more than half (from 21 months to 9 months) the age at which "normal" infants can demonstrate the ability to deduce abstract rules (such as "Choose the item that does not match [is different from] the sample"). People had previously thought that deduction of abstract rules was beyond the ability of infants so young. We hypothesize that the same procedural change will also markedly facilitate rule learning in children with autism. That is, we hypothesize that preschool children with autism, even if mildly developmentally delayed, are able to learn abstract rules. It is only that materials have been presented to them in a way that did not enable them to demonstrate and use that ability.

The potential practical implications of this are exciting. Most behavioral training with children with developmental delays, or disorders such as autism, has not considered whether symbol and referent are physically connected.

Diamond A.: When in competition against engrained habits, is conscious representation sufficient or is inhibition of the habit also needed? Developmental Science. 2009 Jan; 12(1):20-2.

Diamond A.: The interplay of biology and the environment broadly defined. Developmental Psychology. 2009 Jan;45(1):1-8.

Diamond A.: All or none hypothesis: A global-default mode that characterizes the brain and mind. Developmental Psychology 2009. Jan; 45(1):130-45.

Blair C, Diamond A.: Biological processes in prevention and intervention: Promotion of self-regulation and the prevention of early school failure. Development and Psychopathology. 2008 Jun;20(3):899-911.

Diamond A, Amso D.: Contributions of neuroscience to our understanding of cognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2008 Apr;17(2):136-41.

Diamond, A., Barnett, W.S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007).  Preschool program improves cognitive control, Science, 318, 1387-1388.

Diamond, A. (2006).  Bootstrapping conceptual deduction using physical connection: Rethinking frontal cortex.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 212-218.

Davidson, M.C., Amso, D., Anderson, L.C., & Diamond, A. (2006). Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4-13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching.  Neuropsychologia, 44, 2037-2078  (Mar 29 2006; [Epub ahead of print])

Diamond, A.  (2005).   ADD (ADHD without hyperactivity), a neurobiologically and behaviorally distinct disorder from ADHD (with hyperactivity).  Development and Psychopathology, 17, 807-825.

Diamond, A. & Kirkham, N.Z. (2005).  Not quite as grown-up as we like to think:  Parallels between cognition in childhood and adulthood.   Psychological Science, 16, 291-297.

Diamond, A., Briand, L., Fossella, J., & Gehlbach, L. (2004). Genetic and neurochemical modulation of prefrontal cognitive functions in children.  American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 125-132.

Kirkham, N.Z., Cruess, L. & Diamond, A. (2003).  Helping children apply their knowledge to their behavior on a dimension-switching task.  Developmental Science, 6, 449-467.

Diamond, A., Lee, E-Y., & Hayden, M. (2003).  Early success in using the relation between stimulus and reward to deduce an abstract rule: Perceived physical connectedness is key.  Developmental Psychology, 39, 825-847.

Diamond, A., Kirkham, N.Z., & Amso, D. (2002). Conditions under which young children CAN hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response.  Developmental Psychology, 38, 352-362.

Diamond, A. (2001).  A model system for studying the role of dopamine in prefrontal cortex during early development in humans.  In C. Nelson & M. Luciana (eds.), Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (p. 433-472).  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Diamond, A. (2000). Close interrelation of motor development and cognitive development and of the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex. Child Development, 71, 44-56 (Special issue: New directions for Child Development in the 21st Century.)

Associate Editor of Developmental Science and of Developmental Psychology

Member of editorial board for: Research on Early Education and Child Health; Child Development; Infant Behavior and Development; Developmental Psychology; Neurocase; Developmental Neuropsychology; Neuropsychologia; Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology; Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Recipient, YWCA Woman of Distinction Award - 2009

Recipient, Distinguished Achievement Award for Service to the University and Community, awarded by the Faculty of Medicine, UBC - 2009

one of a handful of scientists invited to meet with the Dalai Lama for a week at his official residence in Dharamsala, India - 2009

Keynote Address, Australian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI) 2009 Conference, Sydney, Australia - 2009

Helen H. Molinari Memorial Lecture in Neuroscience, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY - 2009

John P. Zubek Memorial Lecture, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg - 2009

RO Jones Memorial Speaker, Canadian Psychiatric Association Annual Mtg, Vancouver, BC - 2008

Birch Lecture, International Neuropsychological Society (INS) meeting, Buenos Aires - 2008

Commencement Speaker, the Eaton Arrowsmith School, Vancouver, BC - 2008

Named a William James Distinguished Lecturer, by the Association for Psychological Science - 2008

Elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Society (APS) - 2005

Henry Dunn Lecture, the Northwest Pacific Pediatric Neurology Society Annual Meeting; Elected to the Board of Governors of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) - 2005

Canada Research Chair Tier 1 - 2004-present

Elected to the Executive Board of the Cognitive Development Society - 2003

Named one of the "2000 Outstanding Women of the 20th Century," IBC, Cambridge , UK - 2003

Listed in "Who's Who in America " and "Who's Who in the World" - 1999-present

Named a Distinguished Scientific Lecturer by the American Psychological Association - 1997

Tjossem Memorial Lecture at the University of Washington , Seattle , WA - 1994

Elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association - 1993

Harris Visiting Professor, University of Chicago - 1992

Young Faculty Award of the Natural Science Association, University of Pennsylvania - 1990

Lilly Foundation Faculty Teaching Award - 1990

John Fossella, PhD - Collaborator
Art Kramer, PhD - Collaborator
Allan Young, MD - Collaborator
Jane Garland, MD - Collaborator
Tim Oberlander, MD - Collaborator
Rebecca Landa, PhD - Collaborator
Deborah Leong, PhD - Collaborator
Elena Bodrova, PhD - Collaborator
Kim Schonert-Riechl, PhD - Collaborator
John Gabrieli, PhD - Collaborator
Margaret Sheridan, PhD - Collaborator
Doron Gothelf, MD - Collaborator
Ruth Grunau, PhD - Collaborator
Dan Weeks, PhD - Collaborator
Tim Welsh, PhD - Collaborator
Linda Mayes, MD - Collaborator
Carrie Germeroth - Research Supervisor
Jeanette Evans - Graduate Student
Lisa Barker - Graduate Student
Holly MacPherson - Res Tech
Kaye Robinson - Res Tech
Rose Wang - Res Tech
Courtney Fritz - Res Tech
Paige Sayfer - Res Tech
David Abbott - Res Specialist