As a developmental psychologist, I have investigated development in a wide range of ages and settings (e.g., childhood, adulthood, trauma patients). The main goal of my research is to contribute to our current understanding of the impact of sociocultural adversity on human development, but also to maintain functional and clinical relevance that can improve intervention techniques and opportunities, specifically, for whom current intervention methods are largely inaccessible.
My research broadly focuses on the impact of experience as related to various indicators of socioeconomic adversity (e.g., household income, parental education), on the neural structures underlying early-emerging cognitive abilities critical for language development in children. One such ability is to learn patterns in the environment and to be able to predict upcoming sensory events, also known as statistical learning. To explore individual differences in statistical learning in adults and children (ages 5-12 years), I employ various statistical and neuroimaging techniques such as measuring event-related potential (ERP) using Electroencephalography (EEG), measuring blood- oxygen- level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and measuring brain morphometry (e.g. gray matter volume) using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI).
Fulton, T., Lathan, E. C., Karkare, M. C., Guelfo, A., Eghbalzad, L., Ahluwalia, V., Ely, T. D., Turner, J. A., Turner, M. D., Currier, J. M., Mekawi, Y., & Fani, N. (2024). Civilian Moral Injury and Amygdala Functional Connectivity During Attention to Threat. Biological psychiatry: Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 9(1), 112–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.07.006
Abdul-Ghani, S., Lathan, E. C., Miao, A., Gibbons, R., Eghbalzad, L., Powers, A., & Fani, N. (2023). Contributions of trauma and economic insecurity to psychological distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental Health Science, 1, 222–230. https://doi.org/10.1002/mhs2.36
Fani, N., Eghbalzad, L. Harnett, N. G., Carter, S. E., Price, M., Stevens, J., Ressler, K. J., van Rooij. S. J. H., & Bradley, B. (2022). Racial discrimination associates with lower cingulate cortex thickness in trauma-exposed Black women. Neuropsychopharmacology,47. 2230–2237.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M. (2021). How statistical learning interacts with the socioeconomic environment to shape children’s language development. PLOS ONE, 16(1): e0244954. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244954
Conway, C.M., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Smith, G., Na, S., & King, T.Z., (2020). Distinct neural networks for detecting violations of adjacent versus nonadjacent sequential dependencies: An fMRI study. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107175
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M. (2016). Statistical learning ability can overcome the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on language development. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society.
Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M., Eghbalzad, L., & Daltrozzo, J. (2014). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of sequential learning are associated with language development in children. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scasseellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2115-2120). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Eghbalzad, L. (2024). My experience as a woman of color in science. Oxford Neuroscience Student Association (ONSA). Oxford College of Emory University. Oxford, GA
Eghbalzad, L. (2023). My Research and academic timeline. Developmental Psychology Seminar at Georgia State University. Atlanta, GA
Eghbalzad, L., (Symposium Chair & Speaker; March 2022). The impact of environmental deprivation and threat on pathological disorders related to emotion and cognition-A neurodevelopmental perspective. Symposium conducted at Anxiety and Depression Association of America Conference. Denver, CO.
Invited Speakers:
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Smith G., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (June 2017). Neural correlates associated with learning adjacent and non-adjacent regularities during statistical learning: An fMRI study. Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning 2017 Conference. Bilbao, Spain.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M. (March 2017). Statistical learning moderates the effect of low socioeconomic status on children’s grammatical knowledge: an event-related potential study. The 109th Annual Meeting of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Savannah, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M. (August 2016). Statistical learning ability can overcome the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on language development. The 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Philadelphia, PA.
Eghbalzad, L. (April 2015). The moderating effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on the relationship between sequential learning and language: an event-related potential study. Graduate Developmental Seminar, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., & Conway, C. M. (2024, Summer). An fMRI study investigating the neural correlates of processing adjacent and nonadjacent dependencies in visual nonlinguistic sequences. In International Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference. Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language. San Sebastian, Spain.
Fulton, T., Lathan, E., Karkare, M., Guelfo, A., Eghbalzad, L., Turner, J., Turner, M., Currier, J., Fani, N. (2023, April). Neural correlates of moral injury in civilians: Functional brain connectivity during attention to threat. Society of Biological Psychiatry 2023 Conference, San Diego, CA.
Eghbalzad, L., Özçalışkan, S., & Conway. C.M. (April 2022). Association between family socioeconomic status and brain structures involved in statistical learning in children. Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI) Callosum Conference. Atlanta, GA.
Gibbons, R., Eghbalzad, L., Guelfo, A., Powers A., Stevens J., Michopoulos, V., & Fani, N. (March 2022). Associations between childhood maltreatment and domains of psychological distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety and Depression Association of America Conference. Denver, CO.
Uzeda, J., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (May 2019) Neural mechanisms underlying processing of statistical patterns. Brains & Behavior Annual Retreat. Atlanta, GA.
Uzeda, J., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (April 2019) Neural Mechanisms Underlying Processing of Statistical Patterns. Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference (GSURC). Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Smith G., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (March 2018). Neural correlates underlying statistical learning of adjacent and non-adjacent verbal sequential dependencies. Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2018 Annual Meeting. Boston, MA.
Conway, C.M., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., Na, S., & King, T. (March 2018). Neural correlates of perceptual sequence learning: An fMRI study. Invited talk given by Dr. Chris Conway at the Emory University Department of Radiology Grand Rounds, Atlanta, GA.
Loan, P., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Smith G., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (April 2017). Domain-general and domain-specific brain regions involved in statistical-sequential learning. Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference (GSURC). Atlanta, GA.
Loan, P., Eghbalzad, L., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (August 2017). Domain-general and domain-specific brain regions involved in statistical-sequential learning. 2017 B&B / IMSD Undergraduate Scholar Poster Session. Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Smith G., Valdez, G., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (March 2017). Learning of adjacent and non-adjacent regularities in a visuo-syllabic sequential learning task using fMRI. Brains and Behavior 2017 Annual Retreat. Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Smith G., Valdez, G., Na, S., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (March 2017). Learning of adjacent and non-adjacent regularities in a visuo-syllabic sequential learning task using event-related fMRI. Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2017 Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
Deocampo, J. A., Eghbalzad, L., Smith, G., Valdez, G., King, T., & Conway, C. M. (March 2017). Concurrent learning of adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies in spatial and verbal sequences. 2017 Meeting of Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Conway, C. M. (November 2015). Statistical learning ability ameliorates the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on language development. 2015 Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL.
Deocampo, J. A., Eghbalzad, L., Conway, C. M. (May 2015). Statistical learning ability can overcome the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on language development. “Learning about the Vocal World: Deciphering the Statistics of Communication” workshop, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Walker, J., Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. A., Conway, C. M. (October 2015). Is it detrimental to grow up with multiple siblings under one roof? Neurophysiological effects of number of siblings on language and learning development. Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
Conway, C. M., Eghbalzad, L. & Deocampo, J. A. (March 2015). The role played by statistical learning in language development depends upon the quality of the social/linguistic environment. In Statistical learning and native-language learning are linked throughout development. Society for Research in Child Development 2015 Biennial Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Deocampo, J. A., Conway, C. M., Eghbalzad, L., & Daltrozzo, J. (July 2014). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of sequential learning are associated with language development in children. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Quebec, Canada.
Deocampo, J. A., Conway, C. M., Eghbalzad, L., & Daltrozzo, J. (September 2014). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of sequential learning are associated with language development in children. The 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J. D., Pinns, M., Daltrozzo, J., & Conway, C. M. (June 2014). Is sequential learning in children related to primary caregiver’s SES? An event-related potential experiment. Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.
Deocampo, J. A., Eghbalzad, L., Pinns, M., Daltrozzo, J. C., & Conway, C. M. (April 2014). Relationships between sequence learning, language, and social environmental variables: An event-related potential study. Poster, Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2014 Meeting, Boston, MA.
Joshi, Y., Eghbalzad, L., Pinns, M., Trapani, J., Deocampo, J., Daltrozzo, J. & Conway, C.M. (October 2013). Is visual sequential learning related to language development in children? An event-related potential experiment. Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., & Özçalışkan, Ş. (March 2012). What explains sex differences in children’s early gesture use?
Language & Literacy Initiative Conference. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., & Özçalışkan, Ş. (March 2012). What explains sex differences in children’s early gesture use? Georgia State University Research Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Eghbalzad, L., Amin, S., Özçalışkan, Ş. (October 2011). Early drawings selectively predict children’s later language and cognitive abilities. Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference, Atlanta, GA.