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Elizabeth R. Sowell-Crowell, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychology

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Phone +1 323 361 7347
Email esowell@chla.usc.edu
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Overview

Elizabeth Sowell, PhD and her team have been dedicated to understanding how the brain changes in structure and function both in typically developing children and adolescent populations, and in populations with neurodevelopmental disorders such as fetal alcohol syndrome and autism spectrum disorders. The ultimate goal of this research is to determine how changes in the brain relate to changes in behavior and cognitive function, and to identify opportunities for educational, behavioral and pharmacologic intervention to alter abnormal patterns of brain development.

Publications

  • Fine particulate matter exposure during childhood relates to hemispheric-specific differences in brain structure Environ Int. 2020 10; 143:105933. . View in PubMed
  • Association of lead-exposure risk and family income with childhood brain outcomes Nat Med. 2020 01; 26(1):91-97. . View in PubMed
  • Brain morphometric differences in youth with and without perinatally-acquired HIV: A cross-sectional study Neuroimage Clin. 2020; 26:102246. . View in PubMed
  • The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Brain Volume in Children and Adolescents With Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Front Hum Neurosci. 2020; 14:85. . View in PubMed
  • Image processing and analysis methods for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study Neuroimage. 2019 11 15; 202:116091. . View in PubMed
  • Relation between adaptive function and IQ among youth with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Birth Defects Res. 2019 07 15; 111(12):812-821. . View in PubMed
  • Relation Between Oppositional/Conduct Behaviors and Executive Function Among Youth with Histories of Heavy Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 06; 43(6):1135-1144. . View in PubMed
  • Executive Functioning Correlates With Communication Ability in Youth With Histories of Heavy Prenatal Alcohol Exposure J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2018 11; 24(10):1026-1037. . View in PubMed
  • Combined Face-Brain Morphology and Associated Neurocognitive Correlates in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018 09; 42(9):1769-1782. . View in PubMed
  • Biospecimens and the ABCD study: Rationale, methods of collection, measurement and early data Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Aug; 32:97-106. . View in PubMed
  • Neural correlates of verbal memory in youth with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Brain Imaging Behav. 2018 Jun; 12(3):806-822. . View in PubMed
  • Development of subcortical volumes across adolescence in males and females: A multisample study of longitudinal changes Neuroimage. 2018 05 15; 172:194-205. . View in PubMed
  • Two-year cortical trajectories are abnormal in children and adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 04; 30:123-133. . View in PubMed
  • Functional connectivity abnormalities and associated cognitive deficits in fetal alcohol Spectrum disorders (FASD) Brain Imaging Behav. 2017 Oct; 11(5):1432-1445. . View in PubMed
  • Sex differences in associations between white matter microstructure and gonadal hormones in children and adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017 Sep; 83:111-121. . View in PubMed
  • Facial Curvature Detects and Explicates Ethnic Differences in Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2017 Aug; 41(8):1471-1483. . View in PubMed
  • Longitudinal changes in pubertal maturation and white matter microstructure Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017 Jul; 81:70-79. . View in PubMed
  • Lower total and regional grey matter brain volumes in youth with perinatally-acquired HIV infection: Associations with HIV disease severity, substance use, and cognition Brain Behav Immun. 2017 May; 62:100-109. . View in PubMed
  • Development of the Cerebral Cortex across Adolescence: A Multisample Study of Inter-Related Longitudinal Changes in Cortical Volume, Surface Area, and Thickness J Neurosci. 2017 03 22; 37(12):3402-3412. . View in PubMed
  • Puberty and structural brain development in humans Front Neuroendocrinol. 2017 01; 44:122-137. . View in PubMed
  • Cortical gyrification is abnormal in children with prenatal alcohol exposure Neuroimage Clin. 2017; 15:391-400. . View in PubMed
  • A Riemannian Framework for Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis on the Tangent Space of Shapes Conf Comput Vis Pattern Recognit Workshops. 2017; 2017:726-734. . View in PubMed
  • Deformed Subcortical Structures Are Related to Past HIV Disease Severity in Youth With Perinatally Acquired HIV Infection J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2016 Dec; 5(suppl 1):S6-S14. . View in PubMed
  • Structural brain development between childhood and adulthood: Convergence across four longitudinal samples Neuroimage. 2016 Nov 01; 141:273-281. . View in PubMed
  • A Decision Tree to Identify Children Affected by Prenatal Alcohol ExposureJ Pediatr. 2016 Oct; 177:121-127. e1. . View in PubMed
  • Neurobehavioral Deficits Consistent Across Age and Sex in Youth with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016 09; 40(9):1971-81. . View in PubMed
  • Gray matter maturation and cognition in children with different APOE e genotypes Neurology. 2016 Aug 09; 87(6):585-94. . View in PubMed
  • Anxiety is related to indices of cortical maturation in typically developing children and adolescents Brain Struct Funct. 2016 07; 221(6):3013-25. . View in PubMed
  • Drinking During Pregnancy and the Developing Brain: Is Any Amount Safe? Trends Cogn Sci. 2016 Feb; 20(2):80-82.. View in PubMed
  • The Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) Data Repository Neuroimage. 2016 Jan 01; 124(Pt B):1149-1154. . View in PubMed
  • Age-Related Differences in Cortical Thickness Vary by Socioeconomic Status PLoS One. 2016; 11(9):e0162511. . View in PubMed
  • Developmental Trajectories for Visuo-Spatial Attention are Altered by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: A Longitudinal FMRI Study Cereb Cortex. 2015 Dec; 25(12):4761-71. . View in PubMed
  • Executive function and cortical thickness in youths prenatally exposed to cocaine, alcohol and tobacco Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2015 Dec; 16:155-165. . View in PubMed
  • Default Mode Connectivity in Youth With Perinatally Acquired HIV Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Sep; 94(37):e1417. . View in PubMed
  • White matter microstructure among youth with perinatally acquired HIV is associated with disease severity AIDS. 2015 Jun 01; 29(9):1035-44. . View in PubMed
  • Volume changes and brain-behavior relationships in white matter and subcortical gray matter in children with prenatal alcohol exposure Hum Brain Mapp. 2015 Jun; 36(6):2318-29. . View in PubMed
  • Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents Nat Neurosci. 2015 May; 18(5):773-8. . View in PubMed
  • A longitudinal study: changes in cortical thickness and surface area during pubertal maturation PLoS One. 2015; 10(3):e0119774. . View in PubMed
  • The role of testosterone and estradiol in brain volume changes across adolescence: a longitudinal structural MRI study Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Nov; 35(11):5633-45. . View in PubMed
  • Pregnancy: No safe level of alcohol Nature. 2014 Sep 11; 513(7517):172. . View in PubMed
  • The clinical utility and specificity of parent report of executive function among children with prenatal alcohol exposure J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2014 Aug; 20(7):704-16. . View in PubMed
  • Schizophrenia-risk variant rs6994992 in the neuregulin-1 gene on brain developmental trajectories in typically developing children Transl Psychiatry. 2014 May 27; 4:e392. . View in PubMed
  • Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder on adaptive functioning Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2014 May; 38(5):1439-47. . View in PubMed
  • A commonly carried genetic variant in the delta opioid receptor gene, OPRD1, is associated with smaller regional brain volumes: replication in elderly and young populations Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Apr; 35(4):1226-36. . View in PubMed
  • Reading skill and structural brain development Neuroreport. 2014 Mar 26; 25(5):347-52. . View in PubMed
  • Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the development of white matter volume and change in executive function Neuroimage Clin. 2014; 5:19-27. . View in PubMed
  • White matter connectivity and aerobic fitness in male adolescents Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2014 Jan; 7:65-75. . View in PubMed
  • The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery: results from a large normative developmental sample (PING) Neuropsychology. 2014 Jan; 28(1):1-10. . View in PubMed
  • The neurobiology of childhood structural brain development: conception through adulthood Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2014; 16:3-17. . View in PubMed
  • Neuropsychological deficits associated with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure are not exacerbated by ADHD Neuropsychology. 2013 Nov; 27(6):713-24. . View in PubMed
  • Genome-wide association study of shared components of reading disability and language impairment Genes Brain Behav. 2013 Nov; 12(8):792-801. . View in PubMed
  • White matter microstructure abnormalities and executive function in adolescents with prenatal cocaine exposure Psychiatry Res. 2013 Aug 30; 213(2):161-8. . View in PubMed
  • Further development of a neurobehavioral profile of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013 Mar; 37(3):517-28. . View in PubMed
  • The effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder on psychopathology and behavior Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013 Mar; 37(3):507-16. . View in PubMed
  • Prenatal alcohol exposure, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and sluggish cognitive tempo Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013 Jan; 37 Suppl 1:E338-46. . View in PubMed
  • White matter microstructural alterations in children with prenatal methamphetamine/polydrug exposure Psychiatry Res. 2012 Nov 30; 204(2-3):140-8. . View in PubMed
  • Multimodal imaging of the self-regulating developing brain Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Nov 27; 109(48):19620-5. . View in PubMed
  • A longitudinal study of the long-term consequences of drinking during pregnancy: heavy in utero alcohol exposure disrupts the normal processes of brain development J Neurosci. 2012 Oct 31; 32(44):15243-51. . View in PubMed
  • Neuroanatomical assessment of biological maturity Curr Biol. 2012 Sep 25; 22(18):1693-8. . View in PubMed
  • Adolescents with prenatal cocaine exposure show subtle alterations in striatal surface morphology and frontal cortical volumes J Neurodev Disord. 2012 Aug 07; 4(1):22. . View in PubMed
  • Executive function predicts adaptive behavior in children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2012 Aug; 36(8):1431-41. . View in PubMed
  • Neural correlates of socioeconomic status in the developing human brain Dev Sci. 2012 Jul; 15(4):516-27. . View in PubMed
  • Promise for finding brain biomarkers among infants at high familial risk for developing autism spectrum disorders Am J Psychiatry. 2012 Jun; 169(6):551-3. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormal cortical thickness alterations in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and their relationships with facial dysmorphology Cereb Cortex. 2012 May; 22(5):1170-9. . View in PubMed
  • Callosal thickness reductions relate to facial dysmorphology in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2012 May; 36(5):798-806. . View in PubMed
  • Regional brain volume reductions relate to facial dysmorphology and neurocognitive function in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders Hum Brain Mapp. 2012 Apr; 33(4):920-37. . View in PubMed
  • Association of common genetic variants in GPCPD1 with scaling of visual cortical surface area in humans Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Mar 06; 109(10):3985-90. . View in PubMed
  • Along-tract statistics allow for enhanced tractography analysis Neuroimage. 2012 Feb 15; 59(4):3227-42. . View in PubMed
  • Frontostriatal connectivity in children during working memory and the effects of prenatal methamphetamine, alcohol, and polydrug exposure Dev Neurosci. 2012; 34(1):43-57. . View in PubMed
  • Sex matters during adolescence: testosterone-related cortical thickness maturation differs between boys and girls PLoS One. 2012; 7(3):e33850. . View in PubMed
  • Diffusion tensor imaging studies of prenatal drug exposure: challenges of poly-drug use in pregnant women J Pediatr. 2011 Nov; 159(5):709-10. . View in PubMed
  • Reading skill is related to individual differences in brain structure in college students Hum Brain Mapp. 2011 Aug; 32(8):1194-205. . View in PubMed
  • fMRI of syntactic processing in typically developing children: structural correlates in the inferior frontal gyrus Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Jul; 1(3):313-23. . View in PubMed
  • Imaging the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on the structure of the developing human brain Neuropsychol Rev. 2011 Jun; 21(2):102-18. . View in PubMed
  • Puberty influences medial temporal lobe and cortical gray matter maturation differently in boys than girls matched for sexual maturity Cereb Cortex. 2011 Mar; 21(3):636-46. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormal brain activation during working memory in children with prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse: the effects of methamphetamine, alcohol, and polydrug exposure Neuroimage. 2011 Feb 14; 54(4):3067-75. . View in PubMed
  • Focus on: structural and functional brain abnormalities in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders Alcohol Res Health. 2011; 34(1):121-31. . View in PubMed
  • Quantitative in vivo evidence for broad regional gradients in the timing of white matter maturation during adolescence Neuroimage. 2011 Jan 01; 54(1):25-31. . View in PubMed
  • Structural, metabolic, and functional brain abnormalities as a result of prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse: evidence from neuroimaging Neuropsychol Rev. 2010 Dec; 20(4):376-97. . View in PubMed
  • Collaborative initiative on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: methodology of clinical projects Alcohol. 2010 Nov-Dec; 44(7-8):635-41. . View in PubMed
  • Differentiating prenatal exposure to methamphetamine and alcohol versus alcohol and not methamphetamine using tensor-based brain morphometry and discriminant analysis J Neurosci. 2010 Mar 17; 30(11):3876-85. . View in PubMed
  • Relationships between brain activation and brain structure in normally developing children Cereb Cortex. 2009 Nov; 19(11):2595-604. . View in PubMed
  • Altered frontal-parietal functioning during verbal working memory in children and adolescents with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Hum Brain Mapp. 2009 Oct; 30(10):3200-8. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormal fMRI activation pattern during story listening in individuals with Down syndrome Am J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2009 Sep; 114(5):369-80. . View in PubMed
  • Effects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure on verbal memory revealed with functional magnetic resonance imaging J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2009 Jun; 30(3):185-92. . View in PubMed
  • Semi-automated method for delineation of landmarks on models of the cerebral cortex J Neurosci Methods. 2009 Apr 15; 178(2):385-92. . View in PubMed
  • Neurodevelopmental changes in verbal working memory load-dependency: an fMRI investigation Neuroimage. 2008 Oct 01; 42(4):1678-85. . View in PubMed
  • Thinning of sensorimotor cortices in children with Tourette syndrome Nat Neurosci. 2008 Jun; 11(6):637-9. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping white matter integrity and neurobehavioral correlates in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders J Neurosci. 2008 Feb 06; 28(6):1313-9. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormal cortical thickness and brain-behavior correlation patterns in individuals with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Cereb Cortex. 2008 Jan; 18(1):136-44. . View in PubMed
  • Sex differences in cortical thickness mapped in 176 healthy individuals between 7 and 87 years of age Cereb Cortex. 2007 Jul; 17(7):1550-60. . View in PubMed
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging of verbal learning in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Neuroreport. 2007 May 07; 18(7):635-9. . View in PubMed
  • Tracking Alzheimer’s disease Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007 Feb; 1097:183-214. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping brain maturation Trends Neurosci. 2006 Mar; 29(3):148-59. . View in PubMed
  • Brain imaging in FAS: commentary on the article by Malisza et al Pediatr Res. 2005 Dec; 58(6):1148-9. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping cerebellar vermal morphology and cognitive correlates in prenatal alcohol exposure Neuroreport. 2005 Aug 22; 16(12):1285-90. . View in PubMed
  • Structural MRI and brain development Int Rev Neurobiol. 2005; 67:285-323. . View in PubMed
  • Longitudinal mapping of cortical thickness and brain growth in normal children J Neurosci. 2004 Sep 22; 24(38):8223-31. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping changes in the human cortex throughout the span of life Neuroscientist. 2004 Aug; 10(4):372-92. . View in PubMed
  • Teratogenic effects of alcohol: a decade of brain imaging Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2004 May 15; 127C(1):35-41. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping brain size and cortical gray matter changes in elderly depression Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Feb 15; 55(4):382-9. . View in PubMed
  • Anterior cingulate, gyrus rectus, and orbitofrontal abnormalities in elderly depressed patients: an MRI-based parcellation of the prefrontal cortex Am J Psychiatry. 2004 Jan; 161(1):99-108. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping cortical change in Alzheimer’s disease, brain development, and schizophrenia Neuroimage. 2004; 23 Suppl 1:S2-18. . View in PubMed
  • Increases in regional subarachnoid CSF without apparent cortical gray matter deficits in schizophrenia: modulating effects of sex and age Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Dec; 160(12):2169-80. . View in PubMed
  • Cortical abnormalities in children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder Lancet. 2003 Nov 22; 362(9397):1699-707. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping cortical change across the human life span Nat Neurosci. 2003 Mar; 6(3):309-15. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping cortical gray matter asymmetry patterns in adolescents with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Neuroimage. 2002 Dec; 17(4):1807-19. . View in PubMed
  • Regional brain shape abnormalities persist into adolescence after heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Cereb Cortex. 2002 Aug; 12(8):856-65. . View in PubMed
  • Development of cortical and subcortical brain structures in childhood and adolescence: a structural MRI study Dev Med Child Neurol. 2002 Jan; 44(1):4-16. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping sulcal pattern asymmetry and local cortical surface gray matter distribution in vivo: maturation in perisylvian cortices Cereb Cortex. 2002 Jan; 12(1):17-26. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping continued brain growth and gray matter density reduction in dorsal frontal cortex: Inverse relationships during postadolescent brain maturation J Neurosci. 2001 Nov 15; 21(22):8819-29. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping callosal morphology and cognitive correlates: effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure Neurology. 2001 Jul 24; 57(2):235-44. . View in PubMed
  • Voxel-based morphometric analyses of the brain in children and adolescents prenatally exposed to alcohol Neuroreport. 2001 Mar 05; 12(3):515-23. . View in PubMed
  • Improved memory functioning and frontal lobe maturation between childhood and adolescence: a structural MRI study J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2001 Mar; 7(3):312-22. . View in PubMed
  • Brain abnormalities in early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorder observed with statistical parametric mapping of structural magnetic resonance images Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Sep; 157(9):1475-84. . View in PubMed
  • Brain abnormalities observed in childhood-onset schizophrenia: a review of the structural magnetic resonance imaging literature Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev. 2000; 6(3):180-5. . View in PubMed
  • In vivo evidence for post-adolescent brain maturation in frontal and striatal regions Nat Neurosci. 1999 Oct; 2(10):859-61. . View in PubMed
  • Localizing age-related changes in brain structure between childhood and adolescence using statistical parametric mapping Neuroimage. 1999 Jun; 9(6 Pt 1):587-97. . View in PubMed
  • A decrease in the size of the basal ganglia in children with fetal alcohol syndrome Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1996 Sep; 20(6):1088-93. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormal development of the cerebellar vermis in children prenatally exposed to alcohol: size reduction in lobules I-V Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1996 Feb; 20(1):31-4. . View in PubMed
  • Abnormalities of the corpus callosum in children prenatally exposed to alcohol Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1995 Oct; 19(5):1198-202. . View in PubMed
  • Cerebral structure on MRI, Part I: Localization of age-related changes Biol Psychiatry. 1991 Jan 01; 29(1):55-67. . View in PubMed

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