Kelsey L. Canada, PhD

kcanada[at]wayne.edu

pronouns: she/her

about me

Throughout my work, I have been captivated by the individual differences in children’s development at multiple levels—from neurobiology to cognition—and the environmental factors that explain these differences. Thus, my program of research examines normative development and the factors that modify healthy brain and cognitive development.

Specifically, my research focuses on the development of episodic memory and its neural correlates in children between the ages of 4- to 8-years. I utilize a combination of behavioral measures and neuroimaging (both MRI and EEG), with a focus on longitudinal analyses (mixed-effect models, latent growth models).

I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Noa Ofen and Dr. Ana Daugherty at Wayne State University. I completed my doctoral training under the advisement of Dr. Tracy Riggins at the University of Maryland.

selected publications

Empirical Evidence Supporting Neural Contributions to Episodic Memory Development in Early Childhood: Implications for Childhood Amnesia

Riggins, Tracy, Canada, Kelsey L., and Botdorf, Morgan

Child Development Perspectives 2020

Abs PDF Website

Memories for events that happen early in life are fragile—they are forgotten more quickly than expected based on typical adult rates of forgetting. Although numerous factors contribute to this phenomenon, data show that one major source of change is the protracted development of neural structures related to memory. Recent empirical studies in early childhood reveal that the development of specific subdivisions of the hippocampus (i.e., the dentate gyrus) is related directly to variations in memory. Yet, the hippocampus is only one region within a larger network supporting memory. Data from young children have also shown that activation of cortical regions during memory tasks and the functional connectivity between the hippocampus and cortex relate to memory during this period. Taken together, these results suggest that protracted neural development of the hippocampus, cortex, and connections between these regions contribute to the fragility of memories early in life and may ultimately contribute to childhood amnesia.
Modeling longitudinal changes in hippocampal subfields and relations with memory from early- to mid-childhood

Canada, Kelsey L., Hancock, Gregory R., and Riggins, Tracy

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 2021

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The hippocampus has been suggested to show protracted postnatal developmental growth across childhood. Most previous studies during this developmental period have been cross-sectional in nature and have focused on agerelated differences in either hippocampal subregions or subfields, but not both, potentially missing localized changes. This study capitalized on a latent structural equation modeling approach to examine the longitudinal development of hippocampal subfields (cornu ammonis (CA) 2-4/dentate gyrus (DG), CA1, subiculum) in both the head and the body of the hippocampus, separately, in 165 typically developing 4- to 8-year-old children. Our findings document differential development of subfields within hippocampal head and body. Specifically, within hippocampal head, CA1 volume increased between 4− 5 years and within hippocampal body, CA2-4/DG and subiculum volume increased between 5− 6 years. Additionally, changes in CA1 volume in the head and changes in subiculum in the body between 4− 5 years related to improvements in memory between 4− 5 years. These findings demonstrate the protracted development of subfields in vivo during early- to mid-childhood, illustrate the importance of considering subfields separately in the head and body of the hippocampus, document cooccurring development of brain and behavior, and highlight the strength of longitudinal data and latent modeling when examining brain development.