Mark is the founder of the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience: the study of how brain development relates to cognitive and behavioural changes in infants, toddlers, children and adolescents. He established and co-leads Europe’s largest study of infants from families with a history of autism (“infant sibs”; BASIS/STAARS). Collecting data for over 20 years on these infants using a prospective longitudinal design we have discovered early predictive factors that associate with later emerging autism. He also co-leads empirical projects focussed on the perinatal transition from fetus to newborn from the perspective of birth being the biggest change in environment that a brain experiences over its lifetime. Finally, he has authored key papers on autism viewed as an alternative trajectory for human brain functional organisation based on principles from systems neuroscience, such as the AMEND framework.
Professor Mark Johnson
Professor/Chair of Experimental Psychology (1931) & Fellow of Kings College Cambridge
