BCCHR Researchers Find a Researcher

Adele Diamond

PhD, FRSC, BA

Affiliate Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Canada Research Chair Tier 1
Head, Program in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia

Our work integrates behavioural, neuroanatomical, and genetic approaches to study cognitive abilities (called ‘executive functions’) dependent on prefrontal cortex (PFC) from their earliest beginnings throughout the lifespan in clinical and "normal" populations. These abilities include selective attention, self-control, working memory, and the cognitive flexibility needed for creative problem-solving.

Our methods include: neurocognitive testing, even of infants; molecular genetic analyses; and interventions (such as preschool programs, traditional karate or balance training for children 8-12 years old, actively engaging with beloved music for adults with the beginnings of cognitive decline). We study the neural bases, genetic and neurochemical modulation, and modification by the environment of executive functions and how they can become derailed in disorders. Environmental effects include how executive functions can be impaired by stress, loneliness, or social disadvantage and can be improved by school programs, the arts, or physical activities.

We hope our work might aid the understanding, prevention, and treatment of mental health disorders. Our work has already led to worldwide improvements in the treatment of a genetic disorder (PKU) and a developmental disorder (ADHD), thereby improving children's lives. Our research also has educational implications and has affected early education worldwide.

Adele Diamond

PhD, FRSC, BA

Affiliate Investigator, BC Children's Hospital Canada Research Chair Tier 1 Head, Program in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia

Academic Affiliations

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Maternal Perinatal Depressive Symptoms, Prenatal Maternal Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Antidepressants, and Executive Functions in Children: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study

A Qualitative Study of the Lived Experience of Children with ADHD

Integrating Social and Emotional Learning into Mathematics Education: A Multiple Case Study of JUMP Maths Approach to Creating Socially and Emotionally Supportive Learning Environments

Insights from a Career at the Border of Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Longitudinal relations of executive functions to academic achievement and wellbeing in adolescence

Assessment of Executive and Cognitive Functions in Children with Restless Sleep Disorder: A Pilot Study

Effects of Capoeira on children's executive functions: A randomized controlled trial

Reflections on Montessori education " Opportunities and challenges

First Demonstration of Double Dissociation between COMT-Met158 and COMT-Val158 Cognitive Performance When Stressed and When Calmer.

One size does not fit all: Assuming the same normal body temperature for everyone is not justified.

Erratum: One Size Does Not Fit All: Assuming the Same Normal Body Temperature for Everyone is Not Justified (PLOS ONE (2021) 16:2 (e0245257) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245257)

Children Only 3 Years Old Can Succeed at Conditional "If, Then" Reasoning, Much Earlier Than Anyone Had Thought Possible.

The science of education for peace

Executive functions

Maturational Changes in Human Dorsal and Ventral Visual Networks.

Randomized control trial of Tools of the Mind: Marked benefits to kindergarten children and their teachers.

Review of the evidence on, and fundamental questions about, efforts to improve executive functions, including working memory

Children's stress regulation mediates the association between prenatal maternal mood and child executive functions for boys, but not girls.

Effects of physical activity interventions on cognitive and academic performance in children and adolescents: a novel combination of a systematic review and recommendations from an expert panel.

Aerobic-Exercise and resistance-training interventions have been among the least effective ways to improve executive functions of any method tried thus far.

Maternal depression trajectories from pregnancy to 3years postpartum are associated with children's behavior and executive functions at 3 and 6years.

Is more time in general music class associated with stronger extra-musical outcomes in kindergarten?

Do children need reminders on the day-night task, or simply some way to prevent them from responding too quickly?

Why assessing and improving executive functions early in life is critical

Conclusions about interventions, programs, and approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite much hype, do not

Effects of physical exercise on executive functions: Going beyond simply moving to moving with thought

Enhancing cognitive and social-emotional development through a simple-to-administer mindfulness-based school program for elementary school children: A randomized controlled trial

Prefrontal Cortex Development and Development of Cognitive Function

Research that Helps Move Us Closer to a World Where Each Child Thrives

A comparative study of the neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive phenotype in two microdeletion syndromes: Velocardiofacial (22q11.2 deletion) and Williams (7q11.23 deletion) syndromes

Whether coordinative (soccer) exercise improves executive functioning in kindergarten children has yet to be demonstrated

An effect of inhibitory load in children while keeping working memory load constant

Prenatal serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressant exposure and serotonin transporter promoter genotype (SLC6A4) influence executive functions at 6 years of age

Activities and Programs That Improve Children's Executive Functions

The Early Development of Executive Functions

Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: How response prepotency is created and overcome

How I came full circle from the social end of psychology, to neuroscience, and back again, in an effort to understand the development of cognitive control

Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old (Science (959))

Want to optimize executive functions and academic outcomes?: Simple, just nourish the human spirit

Martial arts research: Weak evidence - Response

Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old

Biological and social influences on cognitive control processes dependent on prefrontal cortex

The effect of methylphenidate on prefrontal cognitive functioning, inattention, and hyperactivity in velocardiofacial syndrome

Memory maintenance and inhibitory control differentiate from early childhood to adolescence

The evidence base for improving school outcomes by addressing the whole child and by addressing skills and attitudes, not just content

All or None Hypothesis: A Global-Default Mode That Characterizes the Brain and Mind

When in competition against engrained habits, is conscious representation sufficient or is inhibition of the habit also needed?

Normal Development of Prefrontal Cortex from Birth to Young Adulthood: Cognitive Functions, Anatomy, and Biochemistry

The Interplay of Biology and the Environment Broadly Defined

Contributions of neuroscience to our understanding of cognitive development

Response

Biological processes in prevention and intervention: The promotion of self-regulation as a means of preventing school failure

Interrelated and interdependent

Consequences of variations in genes that affect dopamine in prefrontal cortex

The early years: Preschool program improves cognitive control

Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4 to 13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching

Bootstrapping conceptual deduction using physical connection: rethinking frontal cortex

Color-object interference in young children: A Stroop effect in children 3 1/2-6 1/2 years old

Preschool children's performance in task switching on the dimensional change card sort task: Separating the dimensions aids the ability to switch

Not quite as grown-up as we like to think: Parallels between cognition in childhood and adulthood

Attention-deficit disorder (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder without hyperactivity): A neurobiologically and behaviorally distinct disorder from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (with hyperactivity)

Developmental cognitive neuroscience: Progress and potential

Executive functioning in preschoolers: Reducing the inhibitory demands of the Dimensional Change Card Sort task

Genetic and Neurochemical Modulation of Prefrontal Cognitive Functions in Children

Early Success in Using the Relation Between Stimuli and Rewards to Deduce an Abstract Rule: Perceived Physical Connection is Key

Sorting between theories of perseveration: Performance in conflict tasks requires memory, attention and inhibition

Helping children apply their knowledge to their behavior on a dimension-switching task

Fast mapping of multiple words: Insights into when "the information provided" does and does not equal "the information perceived"

Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response.

Looking closely at infants' performance and experimental procedures in the A-not-B task

Inability of five-month-old infants to retrieve a contiguous object: A failure of conceptual understanding or of control of action?

Toward an Understanding of the Human Frontal Lobes.

Affiliate Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Canada Research Chair Tier 1
Head, Program in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia