Dr Laura Katus BSc, MSc, PhD, FHEA, CPsychol

• Deputy Chair of School of Human Sciences Ethics Panel
• Module Leader for Advanced Developmental Psychology (PSYCH-1028)

• October 2024  Best Output Award - Institute for Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich
• April 2023   International Symposium for Developmental Psychobiology - Wiley Young Investigator Symposium Award
• July 2020   International Society of Infant Studies Outstanding Dissertation Award - Honourable Mention

Laura acts a consultant for several policy partners, including the Brain Health Unit of the World Health Organization. In 2024, she acted as an expert adviser on the Mental Health First Aid program drawn up by Think Equal in collaboration with  UNESCO and UNICEF, discussing the impact on childhood adversity on early child development. Since January 2024, she has been appointed as a member of the Peer Review Panel of the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC). She further is a member of the Early Career Council of the International Congress for Infant Studies (ICIS).

Laura acts as an ad-hoc reviewer for numerous journals within developmental psychology and neuroscience, most notably Child Development, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Psychobiology, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Science and NeuroImage.

Laura’s main research interest lies in understanding how the early environment shapes the developing brain throughout infancy and early childhood. She is particularly interested in how early adversity, as is frequently experienced by children in low-and middle-income countries, affects their developmental outcomes. She further is interested in how early adversity affects cognition and psychosocial adjustment across the lifespan, as well as in the intergenerational transmission of adversity. Laura holds expertise in infant-friendly neuroimaging methods, with a focus on electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Her doctoral research encompassed the first ever EEG studies in young infants in sub-Saharan Africa.

Katus L, Rozhko M o, Torrance C, Fadera T, Njai F, Perapoch Amadó M, Milosavljevic B, McCann S, Minteh M, Jammeh M, Barlow J, Elwell CE, Moore SE, Lloyd-Fox S (2025). Toward a global understanding of neonatal behaviour: adaptation and validation of the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) in the UK and rural Gambia. Infant Behavior and Development, 102017

Katus L*, Lloyd-Fox S*, McCann S*, Milosavljevic B*, Blasi A, Bulgarelli C, Crespo-Llado MM, Ghilia G, de Haan M, Fadera T, Mbye E, Mason L, Nije O, Perapoch- Amado M, Prentice A, Rozhko M, Sosseh F, Saidykhan M, Touray E, Moore SE^, Elwell CE^ (2024). The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) Project: Longitudinal cohort study protocol. *denotes joint first-author, ^denotes joint senior author, https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.14795.1

Macrae E, Milosavljevic B, Mason L, Katus L, Perapoch Amadó M, Rozhko M o, de Haan M, Elwell CE, Moore SE & Lloyd-Fox S (2024) Executive functions in infancy: Measurement using a novel tablet task and exploration of longitudinal attentional and cognitive predictors. PsychArXiv, 10.31234/osf.io/hxqdr

Katus L*, Crespo-Llado MM*, Milosavljevic B, Saidykhan M, Njie O, Fadera T, McCann S, Acolatse L, Perapoch Amadó M, Rozhko M, Moore SE, Elwell CE, Lloyd-Fox S & The BRIGHT project team (2024) It takes a village: caregiver diversity and language contingency in the UK and rural Gambia. Infant Behavior and Development, 74, 101913. *denotes joint first author

Katus, L., Cragg, L. and Hughes, C., 2023. Executive functions in infancy, childhood and adolescence: Development, individual differences and real-life importance

Katus, L., Blasi, A., McCann, S., Mason, L., Mbye, E., Touray, E., ... & BRIGHT Study Team. (2023). Longitudinal fNIRS and EEG metrics of habituation and novelty detection are correlated in 1–18-month-old infants. NeuroImage, 274, 120153

Murray, A.L., Xiao, Z., Zhu, X., Speyer, L.G., Yang, Y., Brown, R.H., Katus, L., Eisner, M. and Ribeaud, D., 2023. Psychometric evaluation of an adapted version of the perceived stress scale for ecological momentary assessment research. Stress and Health

Katus, L., Milosavljevic, B., Rozhko, M., McCann, S., Mason, L., Mbye, E., Touray, E., Moore, S.E., Elwell, C.E., Lloyd-Fox, S. and de Haan, M., 2022. Neural Marker of Habituation at 5 Months of Age Associated with Deferred Imitation Performance at 12 Months: A Longitudinal Study in the UK and The Gambia. Children, 9(7), p.988

Katus, L., Foley, S., Murray, A.L., Luong-Thanh, B.Y., Taut, D., Baban, A., Madrid, B., Fernando, A.D., Sikander, S., Ward, C.L. and Osafo, J., 2022. Perceived stress during the prenatal period: assessing measurement invariance of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) across cultures and birth parity. Archives of women's mental health, 25(3), pp.633-640

Collins-Jones, L.H., Cooper, R.J., Bulgarelli, C., Blasi, A., Katus, L., McCann, S., Mason, L., Mbye, E., Touray, E., Ceesay, M. and Moore, S.E., 2021. Longitudinal infant fNIRS channel-space analyses are robust to variability parameters at the group-level: An image reconstruction investigation. NeuroImage, 237, p.118068

Katus, L., Mason, L., Milosavljevic, B., McCann, S., Rozhko, M., Moore, S.E., Elwell, C.E., Lloyd-Fox, S., de Haan, M., Drammeh, S. and Mbye, E., 2020. ERP markers are associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in 1–5 month old infants in rural Africa and the UK. NeuroImage, 210, p.116591

Katus, L., Hayes, N.J., Mason, L., Blasi, A., McCann, S., Darboe, M.K., de Haan, M., Moore, S.E., Lloyd-Fox, S. and Elwell, C.E., 2019. Implementing neuroimaging and eye tracking methods to assess neurocognitive development of young infants in low-and middle-income countries. Gates Open Research, 3

Lloyd‐Fox, S., Blasi, A., McCann, S., Rozhko, M., Katus, L., Mason, L., Austin, T., Moore, S.E., Elwell, C.E. and Bright Project Team, 2019. Habituation and novelty detection fNIRS brain responses in 5‐and 8‐month‐old infants: The Gambia and UK. Developmental Science, 22(5), p.e12817

Blasi, A., Lloyd-Fox, S., Katus, L. and Elwell, C.E., 2019. fNIRS for tracking brain development in the context of global health projects. Photonics, 6(3), p89

Books and Book Chapters

Hughes C & Katus L (2024). Emotion regulation and executive function. In Calkins SD & Bell MA (Eds.). Child Development at the Intersection of Emotion and Cognition, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

Katus L, Cragg L & Hughes C (2023). Executive functions in childhood: Development, individual differences and real-life importance, 1st edition. Oxford University Press