James R. Booth
Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Psychology and Human Development
James R. Booth is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Educational Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. The focus of his current research is to understand the brain mechanisms of the development of language, reading and related cognitive processes in typical and atypical populations. Prof. Booth has been continuously funded by the federal government for over two decades and has published extensively in diverse journals. He has served in various roles both within and outside of the university, such as departmental chairperson, grant review member and journal editor. Prof Booth aims to facilitate the interaction between the fields of development, cognition and neuroscience and apply this knowledge to improve the lives of children.
Representative Publications
Since 2022
Suárez-Pellicioni M *, Demir-Lira E & Booth JR (2024). Positive math attitudes are associated with greater frontal activation among children from higher socio-economic status families. Neuropsychologia, 108788.
Wagley N *, Hu X, Satterfield T, Bedore LM, Booth JR & Kovelman I (2024). Neural specificity for semantic and syntactic processing in Spanish-English bilingual children. Brian and Language, 250, 105380.
Wang J *, Joanisse MF & Booth JR (2023). Learning to read strengthens functional connectivity between the ventral occipitotemporal cortex and the superior temporal gyrus during an auditory phonological awareness task. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 66, 4532-4546.
Nathaniel U, Eidelsztein S, Geskin KG, Yamasaki BL, Nir B, Dronjic V, Booth JR & Bitan T (2023). Decomposition in early stages of learning novel morphologically derived words: The impact of linear vs. non-linear structure. Cognition, 240, 105604.
Zhang K, Sun X, Yu CL, Eggleston R, Marks R, Nickerson N, Hu XS, Caruso V, Tardif T, Booth JR, Chou TL & Kovelman I (2023). Phonological and morphological literacy skills in English and Chinese: A cross-linguistic neuroimaging comparison of Chinese–English bilingual and monolingual English children. Human Brain Mapping, 44, 4812-4829.
Barabadi E *, Tabar MH & Booth JR (2023). The effects of foreign language and religiosity on moral decisions: Manipulating norms and consequences. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 23, 310-337.
Barabadi E *, Khajavy GH, Booth JR, Tabar MH & Reza M (2023). The link between perfectionistic cognitions and L2 achievement and willingness to communicate: Examining L2 anxiety as the mediator. Current Psychology, 42, 30878-30890.
Wang J *, Tong F, Joanisse MF & Booth JR (2023). A sculpting effect of reading on later representational quality of phonology revealed by multi-voxel pattern analysis in young children. Brain and Language, 239, 105252.
Wang J *, Yamasaki BL, Booth JR (2023). Phonological and semantic specialization in 9- to 10-year-old children during auditory word processing. Neurobiology of Language, 4, 297–317.
Sun X, Marks R, Eggleston R, Zhang K, Yu CL, Nickerson N, Caruso V, Chou T, Hu X, Tardif T, Booth JR, Beltz AM & Kovelman I. (2023). Bilingual proficiency enhances neural network density: Sources of heterogeneity in children’s functional connectivity during English word processing. Neurobiology of Language, 4, 198–220.
Suárez-Pellicioni M *, Prado J & Booth JR (2022). Neurocognitive mechanisms of arithmetic skill and development differ depending on operation. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 48, 101228.
Wagley N * & Booth JR (2022). Neural pathways for phonological and semantic processing and its relations to children’s reading skills. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16, 984328.
Liu X, He Y, Gao Y, Booth JR, Zhang L, Zhang L, Lu C & Liu L. (2022). Developmental differences in large-scale functional brain networks for spoken word processing. Brain and Language, 231, 105149.
Suárez-Pellicioni M * & Booth JR (2022). Temporal cortex activation predicts improvement in math attitudes from elementary to junior high school. Child Development, 93, 1012-1029.
Gao Y *, Meng X, Bai Z, Liu X, Zhang M, Li H, Ding G, Liu Li & Booth JR (2022). Left versus right arcuate fasciculi are uniquely related to reading skill in children across languages. Neurobiology of Language, 3, 109-131.
Wang J *, Lytle M, Weiss Y, Yamasaki B & Booth JR (2022). A longitudinal neuroimaging dataset on language processing in children ages 5, 7, and 9 years old. Scientific Data, 9, 4.
* indicates first author is (or was) a graduate student, visiting scholar or post doctoral research associate in my lab