Dr. Yaqiong Xiao received her Ph.D in Psychology from Leipzig University/Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2017. Dr. Xiao worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park and University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence. Dr. Xiao started her journey in the field of neuroimaging research since 2010 and applied this technique to studying language and social processing in children. Her research focuses and interests include: (1) investigating the neural basis of language and social processing in children with typical development and autism spectrum disorder; (2) exploring the early biomarkers of social communication deficits in young children with autism spectrum disorder; (3) developing diagnostic tools for social communication deficits and language delay, and providing scientific solutions for early interventions.

Selected Publications:

1. Xiao, Y., Wen, H.T., Kupis, T., Eyler, T.L., Goel, D., Vaux, K., Lombardo, V.M., Lewis, N.E., Pierce, K., Courchesne, E. (2022). Neural responses to affective speech, including motherese, map onto clinical and social eye tracking profiles in ASD toddlers. Nature Human Behaviour 6, 443–454.
2. Xiao, Y., Alkire, D., Moraczewski, D., Redcay, E. (2022). Developmental differences in brain functional connectivity during social interaction in middle childhood. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 54.
3. Xiao, Y., Geng, F., Riggins, T., Chen, G., & Redcay, E. (2019). Neural correlates of developing theory of mind competence in early childhood. Neuroimage 184, 707–716.
4. Xiao, Y., Friederici, A.D., Margulies, D.S. & Brauer, J. (2016). Longitudinal changes in resting-state fMRI from age 5 to age 6 years covary with language development. Neuroimage 128, 116–124.
5. Xiao, Y., Friederici, A.D., Margulies, D.S. & Brauer, J. (2016). Development of a selective left-hemispheric fronto-temporal network for processing syntactic complexity in language comprehension. Neuropsychologia 83, 274–282.
6. Xiao, Y., Zhai, H., Friederici, A.D. & Jia, F. (2016). The development of the intrinsic functional connectivity of default network subsystems from age 3 to 5. Brain Imaging Behav. 10(1), 50–59.
7. Brauer, J., Xiao, Y., Poulain, T., Friederici, A.D. & Schirmer, A. (2016). Frequency of Maternal Touch Predicts Resting Activity and Connectivity of the Developing Social Brain. Cereb. Cortex 26 (8), 3544–3552.

Patents