Julia Noland

Research Assistant Professor

Developmental Science

Office: 319 Hobbs
Phone: 615-322-1835
Fax: 615-343-9494
Email:

Curriculum Vitae

Degrees

Ph.D. (Cornell University, 1998)

Current Research

Executive functioning (EF) is the constellation of working memory, planning, and response inhibition processes that allow for goal directed responses, especially in the presence of a competing responses. My graduate research at Cornell University was focused on evaluating the cognitive requirements of infant EF tasks (Noland, in press, Noland, under review). I also had the opportunity to investigate EF in toddlers at-risk for deficits secondary to lead exposure (Noland et al. 1997 abstract). Based on evidence from animal studies that prenatal cocaine and cigarette exposures permanently alter dopaminergic responsiveness of the frontal-striatal circuit, Lynn Signer (individual post-doctoral NRSA sponsor), colleagues, and I evaluated EF in infants and children prenatally exposed to these substances. In substance-exposed infants, we identified EF deficits and related alterations in effortful attentional control (Singer et al., 2005; Noland et al., 2003a). In substance-exposed preschoolers, we reported deficits in attentional control secondary to prenatal cigarette and cocaine exposure (Noland et al., 2005), sustained attention deficits secondary to marijuana exposure (Noland et al., 2005), and EF decrements associated with alcohol-exposure (Noland, et al., 2003b).
I am a Research Assistant Professor in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Peabody. My Infant Health and Cognition lab has focused on developing an infant EF battery with low risk infants. We recently completed an externally funded study (NAAR, co-investigators Stone & Waldman) utilizing the EF assessments to investigate performance of infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I am collaborator on a pending grant to follow-up this finding. We have recently begun an investigation of EF in infants at risk for frontal-striatal dysfunction secondary to neonatal brain uptake of manganese (Gerber Foundation, Ashner: PI). In the Spring of 2007, we are beginning a project (NIMH BSTART, Noland: PI) will allow for the recruitment of infants with a family risk of ADHD and controls. This research will allow us to test a critical emerging hypothesis asserting that there are two neuropsychologically distinct developmental phenotypes of ADHD.
Beginning in the summer of 2007, I will also be director of the Pediatric Heart and Mind Center the Monroe Carell Jr. Children�s Hospital at Vanderbilt. This is a new center that is funded initially through the Children�s Fund of the Hospital, with external funding pending. The Pediatric Heart and Mind Center will provide for patients born with complex heart disorders: 1) a research platform for developing pharmacological and procedural tools for minimizing neurodevelopmental damage from cardiac surgery and 2) the clinical coordination and specialization for optimizing intervention when neurodevelopmental delays are detected.

Current Positions

Research Assistant Professor of Psychology, Peabody College, Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics; Member, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.

Representative Publications

Noland, J.S. (in press). It is not just about location: Infants perseverate to container shape during object search. Infancy.
Singer, L.T., Eisengart, L. J., Minnes, S., Jey, A., Lane, C., Arendt, R. E., Noland, J.S., Min, M.O. (2005). Prenatal cocaine exposure and infant cognition. Infant Behavior and Development, 28, 431-444.
Noland, J. S., Singer, L. T., Short, E. J., Minnes, S. Arendt, R. E., & Bearer, C. F. (2005). Prenatal substance exposure and selective attention in preschoolers. Neuroteratology and Toxicology, 27(3),429-438.
Noland, J. S., Singer, L. T., Mehta, S. K., & Super, D. M. (2003). Prenatal cocaine/polydrug exposure and infant performance on an executive functioning task. Developmental Neuropsychology 24(1),499-517.
Noland, J. S., Singer, L. T., Arendt, R. E., Minnes, S., Short, E. J., & Bearer, C. F. (2003). Executive functioning in preschool-age children prenatally exposed to alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana. Alcoholism: Experimental & Clinical Research, 27, 4, 647-656.

Biography

Dr. Noland studies cognitive control (the ability to override competing attentional and behavioral responses) in young alcohol and drug exposed children. Her Ph.D. training was in experimental psychology with infants. That background is useful as she seeks to develop assessments to more specifically target distinct aspects of cognitive control, such as working memory and inhibitory control. Such targeted assessments are aimed at allowing for dialogue with neurobiological models of cognitive control. Dr. Noland's lab is working to develop infant assessments of cognitive control. Identifying profiles of cognitive control deficits earlier could inform our understanding of how behavioral and neurological development in this domain goes awry and suggest avenues for early intervention.

Her postdoctoral experience was with Lynn Singer at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Singer's large prospective investigation into developmental outcomes of children after prenatal cocaine exposure is well regarded for careful investigation of environmental variables (such as parental functioning), which might also impact on development. Dr. Noland's lab is also piloting studies of family risk for delayed cognitive control.

Using assessments from the study of typical infant development the Maternal and Infant Health lab is now investigating early markers of attention disorders and autism. These new directions in Dr. Noland's research are sponsored by the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and the National Alliance for Autism Research.

Miscellaneous

http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/pdf/reflector05_p22-24.pdf