Moriah E. Thomason

Moriah E. Thomason is the Barakett Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She holds leadership roles including Program Director of the Neurodevelopmental Early Childhood Research Program and Vice Chair for Research in her department.

Her research centers on early brain development, particularly the impact of prenatal stress, trauma, adversity, and environmental exposures on fetal and infant neurodevelopment. Using advanced neuroimaging techniques like fetal MRI and wearable sensors, she investigates how maternal psychological and physiological states influence fetal brain connectivity, inflammation, and long-term developmental outcomes.

• Focus on fetal and early childhood brain development
• Integration of MRI, exposome, microbiome, and wearable data
• Examination of maternal stress, trauma, and discrimination as neurodevelopmental risk factors

Her recent publications reflect a strong trend in developmental neuroscience, with emphasis on prenatal determinants of child mental health, neuroinflammation, and the use of graph theory and multimodal imaging to understand functional brain connectivity in utero. Her work bridges psychiatry, population health, and neuroimaging.

Scientific Awards:

No specific awards are listed in the provided text.

Dr. Thomason leads several major clinical research studies including the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study and the NEST Study, which focus on large-scale longitudinal assessment of early brain development. She mentors students and researchers through her research programs and clinical trials, though specific advisees are not named. She has secured significant research grants to support these initiatives, particularly in the areas of prenatal mental health and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

She is affiliated with research labs and teams focused on neurodevelopment, affect, and psychopathology, and leads the Neurodevelopmental Early Childhood Research Program. Her work involves interdisciplinary collaboration across psychiatry, neuroscience, immunology, and public health.