Nuria is a Postdoctoral Image Analyst specialising in statistical analysis of structural and functional neuroimaging data. For her research, she is particularly interested in brain development and how it can be shaped by early environmental experiences such as adversity.

For her PhD project, Nuria worked on the English and Romanian Adoptees Study, which investigated how brain development can be impacted by severe institutional deprivation as experienced in Romanian orphanages during the Ceaușescu regime. Now, as part of the eBRAIN study, she examines how brain developmental trajectories in adolescence might be altered by early adversity. The study aims to find out whether alterations in brain maturation can predict why some adolescents develop mental health problems following early adversity while others do not.

Research interests

• Brain development
• Early adversity
• Childhood maltreatment
• Structural and functional MRI
• Neuroimaging analysis

Teaching

• Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences MSc: Seminar on Environmental Risk Factors for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Articles

Childhood deprivation affects brain size and behaviour in The Conversation

Severe childhood deprivation reduces brain size, study finds in The Guardian