Margaret C. Moulson, Ph.D.

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 46-4089, 77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
Phone (office): 617-252-1815
Email: mmoulson (at) mit (dot) edu

Academic Positions

• MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2007 - present
• Postdoctoral Associate
• Adviser: Pawan Sinha, Ph.D.
  

Education

• University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 2003 - 2007
• Ph.D. in Child Psychology, Minor in Neuroscience, GPA: 4.00
• Adviser: Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D.
  
• Dissertation Title: "Adverse Early Experiences and the Neurobiology of Facial Emotion Processing"

• Queen’s University, 2001 - 2003
• M.A. in Developmental Psychology, GPA: 4.00
• Advisers: Darwin Muir, Ph.D., Kang Lee, Ph.D.

• McMaster University, 1997 - 2001
• B.Sc. (Honours) in Biology and Psychology, GPA: 3.76
• Honours Adviser: Daphne Maurer, Ph.D.

Publications

• Moulson, M. C., Westerlund, A., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A. (in press). The effects of early experience on face recognition: An event-related potential study of institutionalized children in Romania. Child Development.
• Leppänen, J. M., Richmond, J., Vogel-Farley, V. K., Moulson, M. C., & Nelson, C. A. (in press). Categorical representation of facial expressions in the infant brain. Infancy.
• Moulson, M. C., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A. (2009). Adverse early experiences and the neurobiology of facial emotion processing. Developmental Psychology, 45, 17-30.
  
• Moulson, M. C., & Nelson, C. A. (2008). Neurological development. In M. M. Haith & J. B. Benson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, Elsevier, Inc.
• Leppänen, J. M., Moulson, M. C., Vogel-Farley, V. K., & Nelson, C. A. (2007). An ERP study of emotional face processing in the adult and infant brain. Child Development, 78, 232-245.
  
• Nelson, C. A., Moulson, M. C., & Richmond, J. (2006). How neuroscience informs the study of cognitive development. Human Development, 49, 260-272.
• Sabbagh, M. A., Moulson, M. C., & Harkness, K. L. (2004). Neural correlates of mental state decoding in human adults: An event-related potential study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 415-426.

Manuscripts under Review

• Moulson, M. C., Shannon, R. W., & Nelson, C. A. (invited resubmission). One month of enriched experience alters face recognition in 3-month-old infants. Infancy.
• Moulson, M. C., & Balas, B. J. (submitted). The development of other-species face recognition in childhood. Child Development.
  
• Jeon, H., Moulson, M. C., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A. (invited resubmission). The effects of early institutionalization on the discrimination of facial expressions of emotion in young children. Infancy.

Manuscripts in Preparation

• Moulson, M. C., Balas, B. J., Nelson, C. A., & Sinha, P. (in preparation). EEG correlates of categorical and graded face perception.
  
• Moulson, M. C., Gokce, Y., & Sinha, P. (in preparation). Steady-state responses to faces and objects.
  

Conference Presentations

• Moulson, M. C., Suresh, N., Gorlin, S., & Sinha, P. (2009, May). EEG correlates of perceptual organization. Poster to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.
• Ostrovsky, Y., Moulson, M. C., Meng, M., Choi, K., Gandhi, T., Sinha, P. (2009, May). Haptic and visual defragmentation of shapes. Poster to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.
• Pinto, N., Moulson, M. C., & Sinha, P. (2009, May). The benefits of poor acuity for face learning. Talk to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.
• Moulson, M. C., & Balas, B. J. (2009, April). Qualitative differences in own- and other-species face recognition during childhood. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
  
• Moulson, M. C., Balas, B. J., Nelson, C. A., & Sinha, P. (2008, May). EEG correlates of categorical and graded face perception. Talk presented at the Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.
• Moulson, M. C., Westerlund, A. W., & Nelson, C. A. (2007, March). The effects of early adverse experiences on facial emotion recognition: A longitudinal ERP investigation. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA.
  
• Moulson, M. C., Shannon, R. W., & Nelson, C. A. (2006, June). Early experiences and the development of face processing. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Kyoto, Japan.
• Moulson, M. C., Shannon, R. W., & Nelson, C. A. (2006, April). The role of early experiences in the development of face processing. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA.
• Moulson, M. C., Hains, C., Lee, K., & Muir, D. (2004, May). 5-month-olds' reactions to vocal perturbations during face-to-face interactions with a virtual adult. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Chicago, IL.
• Maurer, D., Moulson, M. C., Saeedi, H., Cooper, P. A., & Perrett, D. I. (2004, May). The babies who mistook their fathers for a car: Asymmetrical categorization of faces at 6 months of age. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Chicago, IL.
• Moulson, M. C. (2003, April). Infants react to perturbations in a virtual adult’s sound track (“voice”) during contingent, face-to-face interactions. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.
• Moulson, M. C., Hains, C., Hains, S., Lee, K., & Muir, D. (2002, August). Infants’ reactions to altered adult voices during face-to-face interactions. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
  
• Lipman, E. L., Secord, M., Mills, B., Hicks, F., Ramey, H., Moulson, M., & Syed A. (2000, June). The "Kids" Club: A community-based group program for at-risk preschoolers. Poster presented at Beyond 2000: Joint Meeting of the Canadian Academy of Child Psychiatry/ Canadian Pediatrics Society/Canadian Institute of Child Health.

Honours and Awards

• Early Career Researcher Award, International Society on Infant Studies, 2006
• Eva O. Miller Fellowship, University of Minnesota
  
• One year full support, 2005 - 2006
  
• University of Minnesota, Center for Neurobehavioral Development Seed Grant, 2004
  
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Postgraduate Scholarship-B
  
• Two years full support, 2003 - 2005
  
• Canada Graduate Scholarship
  
• Awarded 2003, unable to accept due to foreign tenure restrictions 
• University of Minnesota Graduate Fellowship
• Awarded 2003, unable to accept due to tenure restrictions
  
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship
• Awarded 2003, unable to accept due to foreign tenure restrictions
• One year full support, 2002 - 2003
  
• Queen’s Graduate Award
• One year full support, 2001 - 2002 
• NSERC Undergraduate Award
• One summer full support, 2001 
• Graduated Summa Cum Laude, McMaster University, 2001 
• McMaster University Dean’s Honour List, 1997 - 2001 
• McMaster University Entrance Scholarship, 1997 - 1998
  

Research Experience

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007 - present
• Postdoctoral Associate 
• Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences 
• Research Topic: The neural correlates of face processing in developmental and adult populations 
• Adviser: Pawan Sinha, Ph.D.
  

• Children's Hospital Boston, 2005 - 2007
• Research Study Coordinator
• Developmental Medicine Center, Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience
• Research Topic: The role of early experiences in the development of face processing 
• Responsibilities: Recording event–related brain potentials (ERPs) in infants; processing and analysis of behavioural and electrophysiological data; recruitment of infant participants and maintenance of database of their records; supervision of undergraduate research assistants; preparation of conference presentations and manuscripts for submission. 
• Principal Investigator: Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D.
  

• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2003 - 2005
• Research Assistant 
• Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory 
• Research Topic: As above 
• Responsibilities: As above 
• Principal Investigator: Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D.
  

• Queen’s University, 2002 - 2003
• Research Assistant
• Early Experience Laboratory 
• Research Topic: Neural correlates of mental state decoding in adults 
• Responsibilities: Recording event-related brain potentials in adults; processing and analysis of behavioural and ERP data; supervision of undergraduate research assistant; manuscript preparation and editing. 
• Principal Investigator: Mark Sabbagh, Ph.D.
  

• Defense and Research Development Canada, 2002 - 2003
  
• Research Assistant
• Research Topic: Factors affecting the adaptation of Canadian Forces personnel before, during, and after peace support operations 
• Responsibilities: Recruitment of Canadian Forces peacekeepers for questionnaire research; collection and analysis of demographic and questionnaire data. 
• Principal Investigators: Monique Gignac, Ph.D., Megan Thompson, Ph.D.
  

• McMaster University, 2001
• Research Assistant (NSERC-funded)
• Visual Development Laboratory 
• Research Topic: The development of face processing during infancy and childhood 
• Responsibilities: Experimental design and stimulus creation; recruitment of infant and child participants; testing infant and child participants in several face processing tasks; behavioural coding and data analysis. 
• Principal Investigator: Daphne Maurer, Ph.D. 
  

Teaching Experience

• University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 2005
• Instructor, Introduction to Child Psychology
• Responsibilities: Overall design of the curriculum; preparation of lectures, exams, and paper assignments; grading; office hours 
• Faculty Mentor: Alan Sroufe, Ph.D.
  

• Queen’s University, 2001 - 2003
• Teaching Assistant, Developmental Psychology
• Responsibilities: Office hours; grading assignments and exams
  
• Teaching Assistant, Social Psychology
• Responsibilities: As above 
• Teaching Assistant, Cognitive Psychology
• Responsibilities: As above 
• E = MC² Program, Introduction to Infant Development
• Responsibilities: Design of a week-long course on infant development aimed at gifted high school students; preparation of lectures, in-class assignments, and field trips.
  

• McMaster University, 1999 - 2001
• Teaching Assistant, Introductory Psychology
• Responsibilities: Review and discussion sessions 3x per week
  
• Teaching Assistant, Science Inquiry
• Responsibilities: Small-group discussion sessions; preparation of materials to assist students in conducting library research; grading assignments

Professional Activities

• Ad hoc reviewer: Child Development, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognition, Journal of Vision, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
  
• Member: International Society on Infant Studies, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Vision Sciences Society, University of Minnesota Center for Neurobehavioral Development (alumnus)
  
• NIMH Conference Fellow, NIMH Conference Series on Comparative and Primate Studies, 2006 - 2008 
• Graduate Student Representative, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 2004 - 2005
• Prospective Student Weekend Committee, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 2003 - 2005
• Association for Graduate Students in Psychology, Queen’s University, 2002 - 2003
  

References

Pawan Sinha, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience
46-4077, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Phone: 617-252-1815
Email: psinha (at) mit.edu

Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D.
Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Children’s Hospital Boston
Division of Developmental Medicine
Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience
1 Autumn St., Office AU621, Mailbox #713
Boston, MA 02215-5365
Phone: 617-355-0401
Email: charles.nelson (at) childrens.harvard.edu

Megan R. Gunnar, Ph.D. Email: gunnar (at) umn.edu