Nicholas Judd

Research Focus

Nicholas Judd is a cognitive neuroscientist focused on isolating environmental causes behind neural and cognitive differences in childhood development. His work takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods and techniques from psychology, economics, sociology, and neuroscience. His research has touched on how different environmental factors contribute to inequality in children’s cognitive and neural outcomes. In addition, his work on a mathematical learning application has also directly impacted the lives of thousands of children. During his fellowship, he will use natural experiments to isolate the influence of environmental factors on childhood development.

My plans for the fellowship period

Identifying the influence of environmental factors on the brain is paramount, given the lifelong impacts of early neural and cognitive disparities. However, this is extremely challenging because environmental influences (e.g., education, income, pollution) are commonly confounded with other individual and societal characteristics. For these reasons, environmental factors are difficult to isolate and study in a controlled fashion. Yet, isolation is a crucial first step on the road to effectively intervening to improve childhood cognitive outcomes.

My research line aims to identify and isolate positive and negative environmental exposures underpinning neural and cognitive development. During my Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship, I will use natural experiments – external events that divide a population into exposed and unexposed groups – to isolate and quantify the impact of different environments on the brain. This line of research represents not only a step change in fundamental scientific insights but also has direct translational implications on governmental policies.

How will my work change children’s and youth’s lives?

Children show marked differences in their cognitive and neural outcomes during development. Understanding the environmental causes that underlie these differences is crucial to lessen socioeconomic inequality. During my fellowship, I will focus on isolating three (major) environmental factors contributing to cognitive and neural development: education, pollution, and resource deprivation.

Particle exposure from wildfires offers a way to study the effect of immediate, quantifiable pollution on the developing brain. This work will not only help us understand how pollution impacts the brain, but also have direct applicability to the lives and health of society at large as it has the potential to offer exposure guidelines for governmental policy. For instance, stay-at-home orders during particularly bad wildfire pollution or air filtration systems in schools could be measures implemented to mitigate neural damage.

With my research, I aim to provide a deeper understanding of mechanisms, clarify neural plasticity, and lay the foundation for better interventions and governmental policy changes to reduce disparities.