Amanda Tarullo

Amanda Tarullo is an Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. Prior to joining the Developmental Science program at BU, she completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Columbia University and the Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology, where she obtained training in infant electrophysiological research methods. She received her PhD from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, where she studied the development of children internationally adopted from orphanages.

Her current research interests involve the effects of early experiences on the neural and behavioral development of infants and young children. In particular, she examines the ways in which early life stress shapes the developing brain as well as the neurodevelopmental mechanisms that link early life stress to child outcomes. Using electroencephalogram (EEG) measures, she identifies patterns of infant brain activity that predict socio-emotional and cognitive functioning in early childhood. She studies both typically developing and at-risk populations in order to explore both normative and atypical neurodevelopmental processes. One aim of this research is to understand why some children who experience early life stress are resilient and fare quite well, whereas others have enduring developmental challenges.