Kathleen Thomas

Kathleen Thomas serves as the Director of the Institute of Child Development and William Harris Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is a Professor of Child Psychology whose research centers on the development and neurobiological correlates of attention, learning, and memory functions during childhood and adolescence. Leading the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Lab, Dr. Thomas employs a converging methods approach that integrates behavioral measures, high-density event-related potentials (EEG), and neuroimaging techniques including structural magnetic resonance imaging, functional MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging. These methods are applied to study brain-behavior relations in both typical and at-risk populations. She earned her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1997 and is open to advising new PhD students starting in fall 2026.

Dr. Thomas's current projects investigate how specific life experiences shape brain and cognitive development. Key studies examine the impact of early orphanage rearing on brain development, learning, emotion understanding, and executive functions in adolescence; long-term follow-up of infants born prematurely; cognitive functions in children experiencing prenatal iron deficiency; developmental trajectories of emotional expression understanding in early childhood; and the effects of adolescent substance use on brain structure and function. Her lab also explores implicit learning development, consequences of early brain insults on learning, memory, and inhibitory control, and brain systems for emotion processing in typical and atypical groups. Collaborations address emotion processing in psychiatric populations, brain responses to violent media exposure, and cognitive outcomes of prematurity and birth complications. Dr. Thomas has produced highly influential publications, including "The adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: imaging acquisition across 21 sites" (2018, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience), "Structural and functional brain development and its relation to cognitive development" (2000, Biological Psychology), "Prolonged institutional rearing is associated with atypically large amygdala volume and difficulties in emotion regulation" (2010, Developmental Science), "Amygdala response to facial expressions in children and adults" (2001, Biological Psychiatry), and "Evidence of developmental differences in implicit sequence learning: An fMRI study of children and adults" (2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience). Her work has advanced knowledge of neurodevelopmental influences on cognitive and emotional processes.

Professional Email: thoma114@umn.edu