New research explores how brain structure shapes language growth in infants with Down syndrome

Donor contributions provided a $20,000 grant to fund a new study to measure language and brain developmental changes in infants and young children with Down syndrome using MRI led by Doug Dean III, PhD, assistant professor, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology and Newborn Medicine.

“While there has been a great deal of research to study the brain and aging trajectory in adults with Down syndrome, there hasn’t been a lot of work done to understand how the brain grows and develops in infants and children with Down syndrome,” Doug shared. “We’d like to understand brain development over the entire lifespan.”

Doug hopes that understanding the brain-behavior relationship will lead to interventions or therapies to help kids with Down syndrome overcome language limitations early on, and with the strong correlation between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions later in life, maybe even support healthier aging.

As an academic medical center affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, our physician researchers and basic scientists are devoted to looking for new ways to improve outcomes and quality of life for the children and families in our care and across the globe. A physicist by training with a PhD in engineering, Doug has a dual appointment with the Department of Medical Physics and is on the faculty of the Developing Brain Imaging Lab at the Waisman Center.

Donor contributions provide funds for research and development awards that are critical for launching new ideas and securing larger, external grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations. In 2023, generous support from donors like you funded 16 new research projects with grants of up to $20,000.