Nim Tottenham
Professor of Psychology, Director of Graduate Studies

My Contact Info

419E Schermerhorn Hall (Office)
409A Schermerhorn Hall (Lab)

Office Hours

By e-mail appointment

Website

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab



212 854 1925
[email protected]

Nim Tottenham

Research Interests

Developmental Affective Neuroscience
Emotion
Development


Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2005

General Area of Research

Developmental Affective Neuroscience, Limbic-Cortical Development, Early-Life Stress

Current Research

The research of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab focuses on the development of neural circuits that underlie affective behaviors across childhood and adolescence, with a particular emphasis on limbic-cortical connections (e.g., amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex).
One major focus of our laboratory is to characterize normative human brain development. We use behavioral, physiological, and functional MRI methods with the aim of identifying sensitive periods during which the environment has the largest influence on neural phenotypes.?
A second major focus is to characterize the effects of early-life stress on human brain development. To meet this aim, we also study the neurodevelopment of children and adolescents who experienced various forms of early life stress (e.g., adverse caregiving) in the hopes of understanding the long-term effects of early adversity on human brain development.?
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Relevant Publications

Gee, D.G., Gabard-Durnam, L., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Humphreys, K.L., Telzer, E.H., Hare, T.A., Bookheimer, S.Y., Tottenham, N. (in press). Early Developmental Emergence of Human Amygdala-PFC Connectivity after Maternal Deprivation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Olsavsky, A., Telzer, E.H., Shapiro, M., Humphreys, K.L., Flannery, J. & Tottenham, N. (in press). Indiscriminate amygdala response to mothers and strangers following early maternal deprivation.?Biological Psychiatry.
Telzer, E.H., Flannery, J., Shapiro, M., Humphreys, K., Goff, B., Gabard-Durman, L., Gee, D.G., & Tottenham, N. (2013). Early experience shapes amygdala sensitivity to race: An international adoption design.?Journal of Neuroscience, 33(33) 13484-8.
Gee, D.G., Humphreys, K.L., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Telzer, E.H., Shapiro, M., Hare, T.A., Bookheimer, S.Y., Tottenham, N. (2013). A Developmental Shift from Positive to Negative Connectivity in Human Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry.?Journal of Neuroscience, 33(10)4584-4593.
Goff, B. Gee, D.G., Telzer, E.H., Humphreys, K.L., Gabard-Durnam, L., Flannery, J., Tottenham, N. (2013). Reduced nucleus accumbens reactivity and adolescent depression following early-life stress.?Neuroscience, 249, 129-138.
Tottenham, N., Phuong, J., Flannery, J., Gabard-Durnam L., Goff, B. (2013). A Negativity bias for ambiguous facial expression valence during childhood: converging evidence from behavior and facial corrugator muscle responses.?Emotion, 13, 92-103.
Tottenham, N. (2012). Human amygdala development in the absence of species-expected caregiving.?Developmental Psychobiology, 54(6):598-611.

Courses Taught

Fall 2016

Honors Research

0 pts, UN3920


Fall 2016

Honors Seminar

1 pts, UN3910


Fall 2016

Introduction to Developmental Psychology

3 pts, UN2280


Fall 2016

Supervised Individual Research

0 pts, UN3950

Selected Publications

Early experience shapes amygdala sensitivity to race: An international adoption design

EH Telzer
J Flannery
M Shapiro
KL Humphreys
B Goff
L Gabard-Durman
DD Gee
N Tottenham

A Developmental Shift from Positive to Negative Connectivity in Human Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry

DG Gee
KL Humphreys
J Flannery
B Goff
EH Telzer
M Shapiro
TA Hare
SY Bookheimer
N Tottenham

Reduced nucleus accumbens reactivity and adolescent depression following early-life stress

B Goff
DG Gee
EH Telzer
KL Humphreys
L Gabard-Durnam
J Flannery
N Tottenham

PubMed

A Negativity bias for ambiguous facial expression valence during childhood: converging evidence from behavior and facial corrugator muscle responses

N Tottenham
J Phuong
J Flannery
L Gabard-Durnam
B Goff

PubMed

Human amygdala development in the absence of species-expected caregiving

N Tottenham

PubMed

Positive valence bias and parent–child relationship security moderate the association between early institutional caregiving and internalizing symptoms

Michelle R. Vantieghem
Laurel Gabard-Durnam
Bonnie Goff
Jessica Flannery
Kathryn L. Humphreys
Eva H. Telzer
Christina Caldera
Jennifer Y. Louie
Mor Shapiro
Niall Bolger
Nim Tottenham

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Neurobiological programming of early life stress: Functional development of amygdala-prefrontal circuitry and vulnerability for stress-related psychopathology

Michelle R. VanTieghem
Nim Tottenham

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