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Nelson Lab

Charles Nelson, PhD

Research Director, Division of Developmental Medicine; Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research; Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.

Research Focus
Cognitive neuroscience.
Brief Research Description
The Nelson lab’s overarching goal is the elucidation of the relation between brain and behavioral (particularly cognitive) development. One line of research concerns typical and atypical memory development. A second theme is infants' and children's ability to recognize faces and facial emotion. They juxtapose our work with typically developing infants and children with infants at risk for developing autism and children who already meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder. A final and dominant theme of the lab is concerned with the role of experience in influencing the course of brain development. Here, their work focuses not only on typical experiences but as well, children exposed to early biological and psychosocial adversity. A case in point concerns an ambitious study in Bucharest, Romania, in which they are examining the effects of early institutionalization on brain and behavioral development.
Key Publications (PMCIDs)

EEG Analytics for Early Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A data-driven approach.
Bosl WJ, Tager-Flusberg H, Nelson CA.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 1;8(1):6828. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-24318-x. PMID: 29717196; PMCID: PMC5931530

Early motor abilities in infants at heightened versus low risk for ASD: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) study.
Iverson JM, Shic F, Wall CA, Chawarska K, Curtin S, Estes A, Gardner JM, Hutman T, Landa RJ, Levin AR, Libertus K, Messinger DS, Nelson CA, Ozonoff S, Sacrey LR, Sheperd K, Stone WL, Tager-Flusberg HB, Wolff JJ, Yirmiya N, Young GS.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2019 Jan;128(1):69-80. doi: 10.1037/abn0000390. PMID: 30628809; PMCID: PMC6338079

Inaugural annual special section of the intellectual and developmental disabilities research centers: developmental cognitive neuroscience and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Jeste SS, Nelson CA 3rd.
J Neurodev Disord. 2018 Dec 13;10(1):36. doi: 10.1186/s11689-018-9258-5. PMID: 30541435; PMCID: PMC6292047

Atypical Response to Caregiver Touch in Infants at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Kadlaskar G, Seidl A, Tager-Flusberg H, Nelson CA, Keehn B.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Jul;49(7):2946-2955. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04021-0. PMID: 31016672; PMCID: PMC6827711

Longitudinal EEG power in the first postnatal year differentiates autism outcomes.
Gabard-Durnam LJ, Wilkinson C, Kapur K, Tager-Flusberg H, Levin AR, Nelson CA.
Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 13;10(1):4188. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12202-9. PMID: 31519897; PMCID: PMC6744476

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