Karin Stromswold

Karin Stromswold is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a core member of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from MIT (1990) and an MD from Harvard Medical School (1991). Her work focuses on the cognitive and neural foundations of language, addressing questions about language acquisition, processing, and genetic influences. She directs the Language Acquisition and Processing Lab, which investigates language development, neuroimaging, and genetic factors in language disorders.

Her research employs multidisciplinary methods including cross-linguistic developmental studies, behavioral genetics, and neuroimaging (e.g., PET scans) to explore innate linguistic structures, environmental influences, and the biological basis of language. Key projects examine language development in typical/atypical populations, sentence processing mechanisms, and the impact of perinatal factors on cognitive outcomes.

Stromswold’s work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS grants) and the National Institute of Health (HD37818). She has published extensively on topics spanning genetics of speech disorders, developmental variability in twins, and syntactic comprehension localization. Her lab actively recruits undergraduate researchers.