Catherine J. Stoodley, BS, MS, DPhil Director, Cerebellar Cognition and Learning (CerCL) Lab

Catherine J. Stoodley, BS, MS, DPhil, joined the Developing Brain Institute and the Center for Prenatal, Neonatal and Maternal Health Research in January 2024. Dr. Stoodley comes to Children’s National Hospital from American University Department of Neuroscience and Center for Neuroscience and Behavior where she has led pioneering work in studying the role of the human cerebellum in cognition and cognitive development.

Dr. Stoodley uses clinical studies, structural and functional neuroimaging,  

Smiling woman with brown hair and blue shirt.

neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation, and behavioral testing to investigate the functional anatomy of the cerebellum and the type of processing that the cerebellum performs. Her seminal studies on the functional layout of the developing cerebellum, the type of processing it performs, and the impact of cerebellar dysfunction in clinical and developmental conditions are recognized nationally and internationally.

She graduated with a BS in Biology from Tufts University. Dr. Stoodley completed her master’s degree and DPhil in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford with Professor John Stein, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Jeremy D. Schmahmann, M.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Stoodley is an elected Fellow of the Association of Psychology Science, the leading international organization dedicated to advancing scientific psychology across disciplines. At Children’s National, Dr. Stoodley serves as Director of the Developmental Cerebellar Cognitive Lab, which will be at the forefront of transforming our understanding of early-life cerebellar injury and recovery using leading-edge brain imaging methods and brain modulation tools.

 

Address: 111 Michigan Ave. NW; Washington, D.C., 20010
Email: [email protected]
Department: MRI Lab

Recent publications & presentations

2024

Stoodley CJ, Walsh KS, Nielsen JD, Kauffman AM, Baucom BD, Muir AM, Paknejad M, Tegiacchi RF. “Impact of lesion location on motor and cognitive outcomes in pediatric cerebellar tumors.” Poster presentation. Children’s National Hospital 14th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2024.

2023

Alho J, Samuelsson JG, Khan S, Mamashli F, Bharadwaj H, Losh A, McGuiggan NM, Graham S, Nayal Z, Perrachione TK, Joseph RM, Stoodley CJ, Hämäläinen MS, Kenet T. Both stronger and weaker cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity patterns during processing of spoken sentences in autism spectrum disorder. Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 Dec 1;44(17):5810-5827. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26478. Epub 2023 Sep 9. PMID: 37688547; PMCID: PMC10619366
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37688547/

Lee MM, Drury BC, McGrath LM, Stoodley CJ. Shared grey matter correlates of reading and attention. Brain Lang. 2023 Feb;237:105230. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105230. Epub 2023 Feb 1. PMID: 36731345; PMCID: PMC10153583
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36731345/