CPRC

Kimberly Noble, MD PhD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the GH Sergievsky Center at Columbia University. She is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist and pediatrician who studies socioeconomic disparities in children's neurocognitive development. She received her undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and completed post-doctoral training at the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. She completed her pediatrics residency at Columbia University Medical Center/ Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York Presbyterian. In 2011, she was named an Association for Psychological Science "Rising Star."

Past Research: We have shown in several past studies (Noble et al., 2005; Noble et al., 2007) that socioeconomic differences are associated most strongly with children's language development and more modestly with memory and executive function. In the first-ever examination of socioeconomic disparities in children's brain function, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that SES moderates brain-behavior relationships among children at-risk for reading impairment. This suggests that children who struggle with reading in the context of limited access to resources may have different neurobiological profiles compared to children who struggle with reading despite adequate access to resources.

Present/Future Research: In one ongoing longitudinal study, we are examining the origins of socioeconomic disparities in infant cognitive development. In particular, we are examining how different aspects of the home environment predict the development of early language and memory skills. Another set of studies involves examining how disparities in childhood conditions and experience predict changes in brain structure in childhood and adolescence. Finally, we are also exploring the links between the chemical and social environments in predicting children's cognitive development. It is the hope that these studies will inform preventive and interventional strategies that may be developed for use in the home, school, or pediatric primary care settings.

Professor Noble's Departmental Biography Page