NYC Conference on Developmental Science Agenda
March 6th, 2026 | 9:00AM – 6:00PM
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
One Park Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10016
* By invitation only *
9:00– 9:30
Coffee & Breakfast
9:30 – 11:00: Physiological markers of child neurobehavioral development
15-min talks + 15-min discussion
Discussant: Bill Fifer
● Sonya V. Troller-Renfree - Give It a Rest: Is Resting EEG a Reliable Biomarker or Just Background Noise?
● Jiayin Xing - From infant temperament to anxiety: infant neural responsivity to unexpected stimuli shapes outcomes
● Nicolò Pini - Associations Between Wearable Infant Sleep and Brain Function in the First Year of Life
● Ayesha Sania - Determinants of toddler sleep and parent-level targets to guide adaptation of a behavioral sleep intervention in Bangladesh
● Natalie Brito - Online Remote Child Assessment Study
11:00 – 11:15
Coffee Break
11:15 – 12:00: Prenatal maternal inflammation Flash Talks
10-min talks + questions
● Sarah Banker - Prenatal Maternal Inflammation is Associated with Early Neurodevelopmental Risk
● Devyn Cotter - Maternal immune activation links to fetal functional connectivity in limbic and mirror neuron network regions
● Caroline Glaser - Inflammatory diet mediates the relationship between early life stress and inflammation in adolescents
12:00 – 1:00
Complimentary lunch provided by the conference
1:00 – 2:15: Perinatal maternal mental health and downstream implications for child outcomes
15-min talks + 15-min discussion
Discussant: Moriah Thomason
● Clare McCormack - Neuroplasticity in pregnancy and the postpartum
● Isabelle Mueller - Autonomic Differences Across Sleep States in Infants Exposed to Prenatal Maternal Depression
● Kristin Voegtline - Antenatal anxiety and mother-infant interaction during play and feeding: The ADIR study
● Rose Perry - Designing Research for Real-World Impact: Community Co-Design in Postpartum Care
2:15 – 2:30
Coffee Break
2:30 – 3:30: Caregiving and attachment
15-min talks + 15-min discussion
Discussant: Regina Sullivan
● Kristin Bernard - When Attachment Knowledge Matters: Differential Effects of ABC on Parental Depression
● Nim Tottenham - Attachment Schemas in the Developing Brain
● Anna Vannucci - Early Caregiving Shapes Intersubject Alignment of Neural Dynamics during Attachment Schema Narratives
3:30 – 3:45
Coffee Break
3:45 – 4:30: Early life adversity Flash Talks
10-min talks + questions
● Haleigh Brown - Emerging Strengths from Early Adversity: Evidence from Prosocial Empathy
● Josué Rico-Picó - Re-evaluating the Neural Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers in Childhood: The Role of Aperiodic and Oscillatory Activity background and oscillatory brain activity in young children with low income during infancy and early childhood
● Nora Harhen - Early-life environments shape learning and decision-making strategies across development
4:30 – 6:00: Trainee and Student Poster Session
Light refreshments will be served