Mirella Dapretto


Image of Mirella Dapretto Dr. Dapretto is a developmental neuroscientist presently appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the UCLA Psychology Department, specializing in language development, in 1994. As a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, and under the guidance of Dr. Susan Bookheimer, Dr. Dapretto acquired expertise in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and conducted a number of studies on the neural basis of language processing in both children and adults, including a study on the neural basis of syntax and semantics published in Neuron. Dr. Dapretto has been the recipient of several awards, including an NIH award to study the neural systems associated with language functions in a sample of normally developing children, and several grants (funded by the Cure Autism Now foundation, the UC DAvis M.I.N.D. Research Institute, the National Alliance for Autism Research, and Autism Speaks) designed to investigate the neural basis of the persistent socio-communicative impairments observed in autism. Dr. Dapretto is also the Principal Investigator of the imaging project within the NIH funded UCLA Autism Center of Excellence. Some of her studies in autism have recently been published in Nature Neuroscience, Brain, and Archives of General Psychiatry.

Laboratory Address: Laboratory
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
Los Angeles, CA 90095
UNITED STATES
Office Address: Office
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
660 Charles E. Young Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90095
UNITED STATES

Research Interests

Using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, my research examine the neural underpinnings of language and communication in adults (monolingual and bilingual), typically developing children, and children with developmental disorders such as autism, dyslexia, and early-onset schizophrenia.

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