Linda J. Larson-Prior

Linda J. Larson-Prior, Ph.D. is a Professor with primary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), with additional appointments in Pediatrics, Neurology, Neurobiology & Developmental Sciences, and Biomedical Informatics. She is affiliated with the Arkansas Children's Research Institute (ACRI) where she conducts neuroimaging research focused on understanding dynamic neural network re-configurations in the brain.

Dr. Larson-Prior's research spans two major thrusts. The first focuses on brain changes associated with childhood overweight/obesity development, examining how environmental, dietary, and developmental processes impact cognitive development and academic achievement. The second major research area involves Parkinson's disease, where she investigates the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and motor deficits. She utilizes multimodal imaging methods including EEG and fMRI to study brain connectivity changes during state transitions over 24-hour periods.

At ACRI, she serves as Associate Center Director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention Phase 2 COBRE and as Project Principal Investigator at the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center. Her work bridges neuroscience, psychiatry, pediatrics, and biomedical informatics, collaborating with Dr. Fred Prior's team on knowledge discovery approaches for large neuroimaging datasets.