College of Education and Human Development

Institute of Child Development

People

Jed Elison

  • Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development
    Distinguished McKnight University Professor

My research examines basic developmental processes that contribute to individual differences in social communication during the infant and toddler period.

    DEGREES

    BA 2005, Psychology, University of Utah
    BA 2005, English, University of Utah
    PhD 2006 - 2011, Psychology, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
    Postdoc Training 2011 - 2013, Social Neuroscience, California Institute of Technology

      AREAS OF INTEREST

      Developmental social neuroscience, structural brain development and social cognition, visual attention, joint attention, eye tracking, MRI, DWI, autism, and emerging psychopathology

        BIOGRAPHY

        Research

        My research examines basic developmental processes that contribute to individual differences in social communication during the infant and toddler period.  Much of the work in my lab operates under the assumption that attentional orienting is a fundamental catalyst for early cognitive and social cognitive development.  Orienting to the most salient and/or biologically relevant information in the social environment requires flexible and efficient selective visual attention.  Following this logic, efficient information processing requires rapid and efficient signal transmission, therefore a large effort in my lab includes characterizing individual differences in the microstructural organization and development of white matter fiber tracts using Diffusion Weighted Imaging.

        What began as a focus on quantifying cognitive and behavioral measures in a manner that would be more amenable to examining brain-behavior associations during infancy has transformed into investigating dimensional constructs relevant to emerging psychopathology. Taking a developmental stance on the endophenotype concept will be a theoretical and empirical challenge that will likely keep my lab busy for the foreseeable future.  Finally, I have enduring interests in the pathogenesis of autism.  Much of my work to date has focused on the identification of risk factors that differentiate infants who later develop autism from other infants. 

          PUBLICATIONS

          Feczko, E., Stoyell, S.M., Moore, L.A., Alexopoulos, D., Bagonis, M., Barrett, K., Bower, B., 1Cavender, A., Chamberlain, T.A., Conan, G., 1Day, T.K.M., Goradia, D., Graham, A., Heisler-Roman, L., Hendrickson, T.J., Houghton, A., Kardan, O., Kiffmeyer, E.A., Lee, E.G., Lundquist, J.T., Lucena, C., Martin, T., Mummaneni, A., Myricks, M., Narnur, P., Perrone, A.J., Reiners, P., Rueter, A.R., Saw, H., Styner, M., Sung, S., Tiklasky, B., Wisnowski, J.L., Yacoub, E., Zimmermann, B., Smyser, C.D., Rosenberg, M.D., Fair, D.A., & Elison, J.T. (2025). Baby open brains: An open-source dataset of infant brain segmentations. Scientific Data.

          Day, T.K.M., Borovsky, A., Thal, D., & Elison, J.T. (2025). Modeling longitudinal trajectories of word production with the CDI. Developmental Science.

          Haisley, L.D., Hantzsch, L., Glick, A.R., Turner, J., Sung, S., Swanson, M.R., Wolff, J.J., Burrows, C.A., Botteron, K.N., Dager, S.R, Estes, A.M., Flake, L., McKinstry, R.C., Pandey, J., Schultz, R.T., Shen, M.D., St. John, T., Zwaigenbaum, L., Hazlett, H.C., Marrus, N., Will, E.A., Roberts, J.E., Piven, J., Paul, L.K., & Elison, J.T. (2025). Adaptive functioning development in infants with agenesis of the corpus callosum. Pediatrics. doi: 10.1542/peds.2024-066555.

          Wu D., Moraglia, L.E., Ravi, S., Elison, J.T., Wolff, J.J., Estes, A., St. John, T., Zwaigenbaum, L, Marrus, N., Hazlett, H., Schultz, R.T., Botteron, K., Dager, S.R., Abdi, H., Piven, J., & Swanson, M.R. for the IBIS Network. (2025). Clarifying the developmental association between gesture and alter vocabulary for autistic children. Infant Behavior & Development, 79, 102058. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102058.

          Eyoh, E. & Elison, J.T. (2025). Delineating trajectories of social-emotional competence in infants and toddlers. Infancy 30(1), e12637. doi: 10.1111/infa.12637

          Dean, D.C. III, Tisdall, M.D., Wisnowski, J.L., Feczko, E., Gagoski, B., Alexander, A.L., Edden, R.A.E., Gao, W., Hendrickson, T.J., Howell, B.R., Huang, H., Humphreys, K.L., Riggins, T., Sylvester, C.M., Weldon, K.B., Yacoub, E…..Fair, D.A., Smyser, C.D., & Elison, J.T. for the HBCD MRI Working Group (2024). Quantifying brain development in HBCD: The magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy protocol. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 70, 101452. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101452.

          Paul, L.K., Turner, J., Sung, S., & Elison, J.T. (2024). Social and communication development in infants with isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum. The Journal of Pediatrics: Clinical Practice, 14:200118. doi:10.1016/j.pedcp.2024.200118.

          Stallworthy, I.C., Elison, J.T., & Berry, D. (2024). The infant parasympathetic nervous system is socially embedded and dynamic at multiple timescales, within and between people. Developmental Psychology. doi: 10.1037/dev0001787.

          Stoyell, S.M., Elison, J.T., Graupmann, E., Miller, N.C., Emerick, J., Ramey, E., Sandness, K., Schleiss, M.R., & Osterholm, E.A. (2024). Neurobehavioral outcomes on neonatal asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection at 12-months. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 16: 19. doi: 10.1186/s11689-024-09533-0.

          Wu, D., Wolff, J.J., Ravi, S., Elison, J.T., Estes, A.M., Paterson, S., St. John, T., Abdi, H., Moraglia, L.E., Piven, J., & Swanson, M.R. for the IBIS Network. (2024). Infants who develop autism show smaller inventories of deictic and symbolic gestures at 12 months of age. Autism Research, 17(4), 838-851. doi: 10.1002/aur.3092.

          Estrada, K.A., Govindarahj, S., Abdi, H., Moraglia, L.E., Wolff, J.J., Meera, S.S., Dager, S.R., McKinstry, R.C., Styner, M.A., Zwaigenbaum, L., Piven, J., & Swanson, M.R. for the IBIS Network. (2023). Language exposure during infancy is negatively associated with white matter microstructure in the arcuate fasciculus. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 61:101240. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101240.

          Mosconi, M.W., Stevens, C., Unruh, K.E., Shafer, R.L., & Elison, J.T. (2023). Endophenotype trait domains for advancing gene discovery in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 15(1): 41. doi: 10.1186/s11689-023-09511-y.

          Lasch, C., Carlson, S.M., Elison, J.T. (2023). Responding to joint attention as a developmental catalyst: Longitudinal associations with language and social responsiveness. Infancy, 28(2), 339-366. doi: 10.1111/infa.12515.

          Burrows, C.A., Grzadzinski, R.L., Donovan, K., Stallworthy, I.C., Rutsohn, J., St. John, T., Marrus, N., Parish- Morris, J., Gomez, S.T., McIntyre, L., Hampton, J., Pandey, J., Botteron, K.N., Estes, A.M., Dager, S.R., Hazlett, H.C., Pruett, J.R., Schultz, R.T., Zwaigenbaum, L., Truong, K.N., Piven, J., & Elison, J.T. for the IBIS Network. (2022). A data driven approach in an unbiased sample reveals equivalent sex ratio of ASD associated impairment. Biological Psychiatry, 92(8), 654-662. doi: 10.1016/biopsych.2022.05.027.

          Bonney, E., Abbo, C., Ogara, C., Villalobos, M.E., & Elison, J.T. (2022). Sex differences in age of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder: Preliminary evidence from Uganda. Autism Research, 15(1), 183-191. doi: 10.1002/aur.2645.

          Doyle, C.M., Lasch, C., & Elison, J.T. (2021). Emerging evidence for putative neural networks and antecedents of pediatric anxiety in the fetal, neonatal, and infant periods. Biological Psychiatry, 89(7), 672-680. doi: 10/1016/j.biopsych.2020.11.020.

          Sifre, R., Berry, D., Wolff, J.J., & Elison, J.T. (2021). Longitudinal change in restricted and repetitive behaviors from 8-36 months. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 13, 7. doi: 10.1186/s11689-020-09335-0.

          Doyle, C.M., Lasch, C., Vollman, E.P., Desjardins, C.D., Helwig, N.E., Jacob, S., Wolff, J.J., & Elison, J.T. (2021). Phenoscreening: A developmental approach to research domain criteria-motivated sampling. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(7), 884-894. doi: 10/1111/jcpp.13341.

          Stallworthy, I.C, Sifre, R., Berry, D., Lasch, C., Smith, T.J., Elison, J.T. (2020). Infants’ gaze exhibits a fractal structure that varies by age and stimulus salience. Scientific Reports, 10, 17216. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73187-w.

          Dalrymple, K.A., Kahn, A.F., Duchaine, B., Elison, J.T. (2021). Visual input to the left versus right eye yields differences in face preferences in 3-month-old infants. Developmental Science, 24(2), e13029. doi: 10.1111/desc.13029.

          Williamson, I.O., Elison, J.T., Wolff, J.J., & Runge, C.F. (2020). Cost-effectiveness of MRI-based identification of pre-symptomatic autism in a high-risk population. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 60. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00060.

          Elison, J.T. (2020). Editorial: Considering Transient Instantiators. Development and Psychopathology, 32(4), 1173- 1174. doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420001807.

          Marrus, N., Grant, J., Harris-Olenak, B., Albright, J., Boster, D., Benedict, B., Tan, A., Hoyman, L.C., Naff, S., Haber, J.R., Jacob, T., Zhang, Y., Heath, A., Agrawal, A., Constantino, J.N., Elison, J.T., & Glowinski, A.L. (2020). Genetic architecture of reciprocal social behavior in toddlers: Implications for heterogeneity in the early origins of autism spectrum disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 32(4), 1190-1205. doi:10/1017/S0954579420000723.

          Swanson, M.R. (2020). The role of caregiver speech in supporting language development in infants and toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 32(4), 1230-1239. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420000838.

          Swanson, M.R., Donovan, K., Paterson, S.J., Wolff, J.J., Parish-Morris, J., Meera, S.S., Watson, L.R., Estes, A.M., Marrus, N., Elison, J.T., Shen, M.D., McNeilly, H.B., MacIntyre, L., Zwaigenbaum, L., St. John, T., Botteron, K.N., Dager, S.R., & Piven, J. for the IBIS Network. (2019). Early language exposure supports later language skills in infants with and without autism. Autism Research, 12, 1784-1795. doi: 10.1002/aur.2163.

          Howell, B.R., Styner, M.A., Gao, W., Yap, PT, Wang, L., Baluyot, K., Yacoub, E., Chen, G., Potts, T., Salzwedel, A., Li, G., Gilmore, J.H., Piven, J., Smith, J.K., Shen, D., Ugurbil, K., Zhu, H., Lin, W., & Elison, J.T. (2019). The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP): An overview of the study design and protocol development. Neuroimage, 185, 891-905. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.049.

          Lasch, C., Wolff, J.J., & Elison, J.T. (2019). Examining the criterion-oriented validity of the Repetitive Behavior Scales for Early Childhood (RBS-EC) and the Video-Referenced Rating of Reciprocal Social Behavior (vrRSB). Development and Psychopathology.

          Dalrymple, K.A., Jiang, M., Zhao, Q., & Elison, J.T. (2019). Machine learning accurately classifies age of toddlers based on eye tracking. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 6255. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42764-z. PMID: 31000762.

          Jacob, S., Wolff, J.J., Steinbach, M.S., Doyle, C.B., Kumar, V., & Elison, J.T. (2019). Neurodevelopmental heterogeneity and computational approaches for understanding autism.Translational Psychiatry, 9(1), 63. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0390-0. PMID: 30718453.

          Dalrymple, K.A., Manner, M.D., Harmelink, K.A., Teska, E.P., & Elison, J.T.  (2018). An examination of recording accuracy and precision from eye tracking data from toddlerhood to adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 803. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00803. PMID: 29875727

          Sifre, R., Lasch, C., Fenoglio, A., Georgieff, M.K., Wolff, J.J., & Elison, J.T. (2018). Restricted, repetitive, and reciprocal social behaviors in toddlers born small for gestational duration. Journal of Pediatrics. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.05.003. PMID: 30060886

          Howell, B.R., Styner, M.A., Gao, W., Yap, PT, Wang, L., Baluyot, K., Yacoub, E., Chen, G., Potts, T., Salzwedel, A., Li, G., Gilmore, J.H., Piven, J., Smith, J.K., Shen, D., Ugurbil, K., Zhu, H., Lin, W., & Elison, J.T. (2018). The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP): An overview of the study design and protocol development. Neuroimage. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.049. PMID: 29578031    

          Fenoglio, A., Georgieff, M., Elison, J.T. (2017). Social brain circuitry and social cognition in infants born preterm. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 9, 27. doi 10.1186/s11689-017-9206-9. PMID: 28729888

          Piven, J., Elison, J.T., & Zylka, M.J. (2017). Towards a conceptual framework for early brain and behavioral development in autism. Molecular Psychiatry, 22, 1385-1394. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.131. PMID: 28937691    

          Wolff, J.J., Jacob, S., & Elison, J.T. (2018). The journey to autism: insights from neuroimaging studies of infants and toddlers. Development and Psychopathology, 30(2), 479-495. doi: 10.1017/S0954579417000980. PMID: 28631678

          Emerson, R.W., Adams, C., Nishino, T., Hazlett, H.C., Wolff, J.J., Zwaigenbaum, L., Constantino, J.N., Shen, M., Swanson, M.R., Elison, J.T., Kandala, S., Estes, A.M., Botteron, K.N.., Collins, L., Dager, S.R., Evans, A.C., Gerig, G., Gu, H., McKinstry, R.C., Paterson, S., Schultz, R.T., Styner, M., the IBIS Network, Schlaggar, B.L., Pruett, J.R., & Piven, J. (2017). Functional neuroimaging in high-risk 6-month-old infants predicts later autism. Science Translational Medicine, 9, 393, eaag2882. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aag2882. PMID: 28592562

          Shen, M.D., Kim, S.H., McKinstry, R.C., Gu, H., Hazlett, H.C., Nordahl, C.W., Emerson, R.E., Shaw, D., Elison, J.T., Swanson, M.R., Fonov, V.S., Gerig, G., Dager, S.R., Botteron, K.N., Paterson, S., Schultz, R.T., Evans, A.C., Estes, A.M., Zwaigenbaum, L., Styner, M.A., Amaral, D.G., & Piven, J. for the IBIS Network (2017). Increased extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid in infants who later develop autism. Biological Psychiatry, 82, 186-193. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.02.1095. PMID: 28392081

          Eggebrecht A.T., Elison, J.T., Feczko, E., Todorov, A., Wolff, J.J., Kandala, S., Adams, C.M., Snyder, A.Z., Lewis, J.D., Estes, A.M., Zwaigenbaum, L., Botteron, K.N., McKinstry, R.C., Constantino, J.N., Evans, A., Hazlett, H.C., Dager, S., Paterson, S.J., Schultz, R.T., Styner, M.A., Gerig, G., Das, S., Kostopoulos, P., The IBIS Network, Schlaggar, B.L., Petersen, S.E., Piven, J., Pruett, J.R. Jr. (2017). Joint attention and brain functional connectivity in infants and toddlers. Cerebral Cortex, 27, 1709-1720. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhw403. PMID: 28062515

          Hazlett, H.C., Gu, H., Munsell, B.C., Kim, S.H., Styner, M., Wolff, J.J., Elison, J.T., Swanson, M.R., Zhu, H., Botteron, K.N., Collins, L., Constantino, J.N., Dager, S.R., Estes, A.M., Evans, A.C., Fonov, V., Gerig, G., Kostopoulos, P., McKinstry, R.C., Pandey, J., Paterson, S., Pruett, J.R., Schultz, R.T., Shaw, D.W., Zwaigenbaum, L., Piven, J., for the IBIS Network. (2017).  Early brain development in infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Nature, 542, 348-351. doi:10.1038/nature21369. PMID: 28202961

          Wolff, J.J., Boyd, B., & Elison, J.T. (2016). A quantitative measure of restricted and repetitive behaviors in early childhood.  Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 8.27. doi: 10.1186/s11689-016-9161. PMID: 27486483

          Spunt, R.P., Elison, J.T., Dufour, N., Hurlemann, R., Saxe, R., & Adolphs, R. (2015).  Amygdala lesions do not compromise the cortical network for false-belief reasoning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 4827-4832. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1422679112. Epub 2015 Mar 30. PMID: 25825732.

          Elison, J.T., Wolff, J.J., Reznick, J.S., Botteron, K.N., Estes, A.M., Gu, H., Hazlett, H.C., Meadows, A.J., Paterson, S.J., Zwaigenbaum, L., & Piven J. for the IBIS Network. (2014).  Repetitive behavior in 12-month-olds later classified with autism spectrum disorder.  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 53, 1216-1224. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2014.08.004. Epub 2014 Sep 3. PMID: 25440311

          Wolff, J.J., Botteron K.N., Dager, S.R., Elison, J.T., Estes, A.M., Gu, H., Hazlett, H.C., Pandey, J., Paterson, S.J., Schultz, R.T., Zwaigenbaum, L., Piven, J., for the IBIS Network (2014).  Longitudinal patterns of repetitive behavior in toddlers with autism.  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55, 945-953.  doi:10.1111/jcpp.12207. Epub 2014 Feb 19.  PMID: 24552513

          Elison, J.T., Paterson, S.J., Wolff, J.J., Reznick, J.S., Sasson, N.J., Gu, H., Botteron, K.N., Dager, S.R., Estes, A.M., Evans, A.C., Gerig, G., Hazlett, H.C., Schultz, R.T., Styner, M., Zwaigenbaum, L., & Piven J. for the IBIS Network. (2013). White matter microstructure and atypical visual orienting in 7-month-olds at risk for autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 899-908.  doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12091150. PMID: 23511344

          Short, S.J., Elison, J.T., Goldman, B.D., Styner, M., Gu, H., Connelly, M., Maltbie, E., Woolson, S., Lin, W., Gerig, G., Reznick, J.S., & Gilmore, J.H. (2013). Associations between white matter microstructure and infants’ working memory. Neuroimage, 64, 156-166.  doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.021. Epub 2012 Sep 16. PMID: 22989623

          Elison, J.T., Wolff, J.J., Heimer, D.C., Paterson, S.J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H.C., Styner, M., Gerig, G., & Piven, J for the IBIS Network. (2013). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science, 16, 186-197.  doi: 10.1111/desc.12015. Epub 2012 Dec 20. PMID: 23432829

          Headshot of Jed Elison