Nancy A. Jones

Associate Professor
Ph.D. University of Maryland '94
Research Area: Developmental, Behavioral Neuroscience


Contact Information:
Office: WB 215
Telephone: (561) 799-8632
Fax: (561) 799-8535
E-mail: njones@fau.edu

General Research Interests

Nancy Aaron Jones directs the Developmental Psychophysiology Lab, which investigates biological and socio-emotional factors that influence development, specifically focusing on the processes by which maternal psychopathology influences infant and childhood development. Developmental psychophysiology recognizes that both biological factors and social factors interact during development Current theories and research into brain development note that the frontal lobes continue to develop throughout early childhood. Our goal is to examine the factors that contribute to risk and resilience in the development of frontal lobe function and emotional competence. Individual differences in temperament and social interactive attachments to parents impact the trajectory to emotionally competent functioning during childhood and into adulthood. Our current research, funded in part by the National Institutes of Mental Health, is designed to explore and understand the contributors to optimal infant development. We are currently conducting projects to understand the frontal lobe development across infancy, the influence of maternal depression on the physiological and behavioral patterns during infancy, and the role of emotional and nutritional factors as protective factors for optimal infant development. Understanding the risks associated with maternal depression during development is also a topic we strive to investigate further. These topics are investigated with laboratory experiments utilizing measures of EEG and ECG activation patterns, measures of infant temperament, and by microanalytic coding of patterns of mother-infant interactive patterns.

Representative Publications

Jones, N.A., Field, T., Fox, N.A., Davalos, M., Lundy, B., & Hart, S. (1998). Newborns of mothers with depressive symptoms are physiologically less developed. Infant Behavior and Development, 21, 537-541.

Jones, N.A., Field, T., Fox, N.A., Lundy, B., & Davalos, M. (1997). EEG activation in one-month-old infants of depressed mothers. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 491-505.

Jones, N.A., Field, T. Fox, N.A., Davalos, M., Malphurs, J., Carraway, K., Schanberg, S., & Kuhn, C. (1997). Infants of intrusive and withdrawn mothers. Infant Behavior and Development, 20, 177-189.

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