Saara Nolvi
Ph.D (FT), adjunct professor (dos.)
FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study saara.nolvi@utu.fi Kiinamyllynkatu 10 Turku Office: Med A307/Pub 318 Contact requests by e-mail. ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-1473 |
prenatal stress; early life stress; postnatal stress; anxiety; temperament; fear reactivity; executive functioning; socioemotional development; cognitive development; structural equation modelling; milk cortisol; brain structure; amygdala; MRI; fMRI, DTI
Centre of Excellence for Learning Dynamics and Intervention (InterLearn); Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology; the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.
Pronouns: she/hers
I am adjunct professor (developmental psychology) and psychologist by background. I currently work as senior researcher in the Academy-funded Centrel of Excellence for Learning Dynamics and Intervention (InterLearn) in the Department of Psychology and Speech-Languge Pathology. I am the principal investigator in the Academy-funded PROSODE project where we explore parental social protective experiences and how they are linked to child self-regulation and brain development. Additionally, I am senior researcher in the PeCCaPS study, where the focus is in family functioning after the child has received diagnosis for pediatric cancer, and family members are being tested for their genetic predispositions for cancer.
My research focuses on early life environmental effects on child self-regulation development and the neural and other biological mechanisms underlying these associations. Particularly, I am interested in the buffering or promotive environmental factors, such as caregiving, parental presence, positive life events, or social support expriences. I am also interested in the inter-individual differences in sensitivity to stress and environment, and how these differences in plasticity are shaped by the environment across development. In
the InterLearn study, we are specifically interested in the longitudinal development of self-regulation and its relation to child mental health and academic functioning. We also aim to identify environmental factors that may buffer from or exacerbate the risk for academic and emotional difficulties.
Teacher education (60 ects); experience from teaching and lecturing from all age groups and educational levels
Taught courses currently:
PSYK3933 Developmental psychology I
PSYK4323 Master's thesis (Psychology)
- Maternal Depressive Symptoms During the Pre‐ and Postnatal Periods and Infant Attention to Emotional Faces (2020)
- Child Development
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Neonatal brain volume as a marker of differential susceptibility to parenting quality and its association with neurodevelopment across early childhood (2020) Saara Nolvi, Jerod M. Rasmussen, Alice M. Graham, John H. Gilmore, Martin Styner, Damien A. Fair, Sonja Entringer, Pathik D. Wadhwa, Claudia Buss
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Newborn left amygdala volume associates with attention disengagement from fearful faces at eight months (2020)
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Newborn white matter microstructure moderates the association between maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and infant negative reactivity (2020)
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Temperament is associated with the use of communicative gestures in infancy (2020)
- Infant and Child Development
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - The longitudinal associations between temperament and sleep during the first year of life (2020)
- Infant Behavior and Development
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - The role of TPH2 variant rs4570625 in shaping infant attention to social signals (2020)
- Infant Behavior and Development
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Across continents and demographics, unpredictable maternal signals are associated with children's cognitive function (2019)
- EBioMedicine
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Gut microbiota composition is associated with temperament traits in infants (2019)
- Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - How maternal pre- and postnatal symptoms of depression and anxiety affect early mother-infant interaction? (2019)
- Journal of Affective Disorders
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



