Laura ann petitto biography of william

Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto

Retired: Science Director and Co-Principal Investigator, VL2; Full Professor, PEN; Principal Investigator, BL2

Dr.

Laura Ann Petitto is a Cognitive Neuroscientist and a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscientist widely known for her discoveries about the biological foundations of language. She has uncovered key brain structures underlying early human language processing and, with brain imaging technology called functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), she has tracked the typical and atypical development of these brain structures across the human lifespan (infants through adults).

Presently, Petitto is the Scientific Director of the Brain and Language Laboratory, BL2, supported by Gallaudet University, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

In this lab, Petitto and her team of undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs study the neural processing of American Sign Language (ASL), how children learn to read