Mariah DeSerisy
Ohio State University, OH·Psychology·Early-career
Most young children go through an irritable phase that fades by the time they reach elementary school. In up to 20 percent of youth, though, irritability persists into middle childhood, and that persistence signals a higher risk for later anxiety, depression and problems at school, at home and with peers.
- Fields
Psychology
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
childhood irritability
air pollution
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Test whether prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), pollutants from burning fuel, is associated with irritability that persists into middle childhood, using advanced epidemiologic methods in a child cohort.
- Determine whether PAH effects on irritability are explained by altered communication between the brain's control and reward circuits, measured with network-based functional connectivity MRI.
- Measure early childhood irritability with developmentally sensitive tools that combine reports from several informants and multiple assessment methods.
- Model how exposure, brain connectivity and irritability relate over time, using longitudinal causal-inference approaches suited to high-dimensional data.
More about the research
Past research has looked mostly at parenting and genes as causes. Much less is known about outside environmental exposures, such as toxic air pollutants a child meets before birth.
Why it matters
Air pollution is a risk factor that can be changed, unlike genes. If prenatal PAH exposure is shown to drive persistent irritability, that could identify an avoidable cause of childhood mental health problems. Children at risk for later anxiety and depression would benefit. The results may inform public health messaging and policies that improve children's environments, and they could support new prevention and treatment approaches for irritable children.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ashley Nielsen
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience·Early-career
Code parent-child interaction videos at age 1 to measure unpredictability in parents' sensory signals (visual, auditory, touch) and in their emotional signals (inconsistent nurturing or support).
Michael A Mooney
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Psychology
Map how inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, irritability, executive functioning, vigilance and reward delay discounting co-develop from ages 7–19, using longitudinal data from the Oregon-ADHD-1000 and ABCD cohorts.
Robert Wright
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether perinatal air pollution and stress alter brain development in ways that change eating behavior and lead to obesity at ages 13–17, using the PROGRESS mother–child cohort in Mexico City.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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