Bio

Luciane R. Piccolo, Ph.D., Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine (NYUSOM), is a developmental psychologist with significant experience in interdisciplinary research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Brazil and Malawi, and also in the United States (US). Her work integrates Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience and focuses on understanding how early childhood experiences are associated with child development and the modifiable environmental factors (such as stress and family language environment) by which socioeconomic disparities operate. Dr. Piccolo’s fundamental contribution to science has been unpacking associations between socioeconomic-disparities and child structural and functional brain development. Primary outcomes in her research include cognitive development broadly and specifically language, memory, and executive functions and the brain structures supporting those skills. Currently, at NYUSOM, her effort has been dedicated to develop and optimize preventive initiatives that promote parent-child shared reading for low-income contexts. The core contribution of her investigation is to shed light on the pathways that produce and amend inequality and the utilization of low-cost, highly scalable evidence-based solutions to improve families’ wellbeing.