Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D.

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Work Titles
UCLA Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Professor, Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) Professor, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
Education:
Degrees:
Ph.D., Univeristy of California, Los Angeles

Contact Information:

Work Email Address:

mirella@ucla.edu


Work Phone Number:

310-206-2960

Laboratory Address:

Laboratory
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
Los Angeles, CA 90095


Office Address:

Office
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
660 Charles E. Young Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90095


Detailed Biography:

Dr. Dapretto is presently appointed as Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the UCLA Psychology Department, specializing in language development. As a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, she later acquired expertise in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Bookheimer. Dr. Dapretto has been the recipient of several awards, including NIH fundings to study the neural systems associated with language functions in typically developing children, and several grants (funded by the Cure Autism Now foundation, the M.I.N.D. Research Institute at UC Davis, the National Alliance for Autism Research, and Autism Speaks) to study the neural basis of the socio-communicative impairments observed in autism. As part of the UCLA Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) funded by NIH, Dr. Dapretto currently serves as the PI of the imaging project (Project 4), as well as Co-PI of a project in infants at ultra high-risk for autism (Project 1 ). In addition, Dr. Dapretto is also a co-investigator on several large-scale collaborative studies headed by Drs. Bookheimer, Geschwind, and Wang, including a recently funded multi-site ACE Network (PI: Pelphrey; participating sites: Yale, UCLA, Harvard, University of Washington). Capitalizing on her dual training as a developmental psychologist and a neuroscientist, Dr. Dapretto’s research combines neuroimaging, behavioral, and genetic data to better characterize typical and atypical brain function from infancy to adulthood. Her work has been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, Brain, and Archives of General Psychiatry.

Publications:

Masten Carrie L, Eisenberger Naomi I, Borofsky Larissa A, McNealy Kristin, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Dapretto Mirella   Subgenual anterior cingulate responses to peer rejection: A marker of adolescents' risk for depression Development and psychopathology, 2011; 23(1): 283-92.
Scott-Van Zeeland Ashley A, Abrahams Brett S, Alvarez-Retuerto Ana I, Sonnenblick Lisa I, Rudie Jeffrey D, Ghahremani Dara, Mumford Jeanette A, Poldrack Russell A, Dapretto Mirella, Geschwind Daniel H, Bookheimer Susan Y   Altered functional connectivity in frontal lobe circuits is associated with variation in the autism risk gene CNTNAP2 Science translational medicine, 2010; 2(56): 56ra80.
Rozga Agata, Hutman Ted, Young Gregory S, Rogers Sally J, Ozonoff Sally, Dapretto Mirella, Sigman Marian   Behavioral Profiles of Affected and Unaffected Siblings of Children with Autism: Contribution of Measures of Mother-Infant Interaction and Nonverbal Communication Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2010; 68(4): .
Losin Elizabeth A Reynolds, Dapretto Mirella, Iacoboni Marco   Culture and neuroscience: additive or synergistic? Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2010; 5(2-3): 148-58.
Sabb Fred W, van Erp Theo G M, Hardt Molly E, Dapretto Mirella, Caplan Rochelle, Cannon Tyrone D, Bearden Carrie E   Language network dysfunction as a predictor of outcome in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis Schizophrenia research, 2010; 116(2-3): 173-83.
Scott-Van Zeeland Ashley A, McNealy Kristin, Wang A Ting, Sigman Marian, Bookheimer Susan Y, Dapretto Mirella   No neural evidence of statistical learning during exposure to artificial languages in children with autism spectrum disorders Biological psychiatry, 2010; 68(4): 345-51.
Scott-Van Zeeland Ashley A, Dapretto Mirella, Ghahremani Dara G, Poldrack Russell A, Bookheimer Susan Y   Reward processing in autism Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2010; 3(2): 53-67.
McNealy Kristin, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   The neural basis of speech parsing in children and adults Developmental science, 2010; 13(2): 385-406.
Masten Carrie L, Eisenberger Naomi I, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Dapretto Mirella   Witnessing peer rejection during early adolescence: Neural correlates of empathy for experiences of social exclusion Social neuroscience, 2010; 68(4): 1-12.
Losin Elizabeth A Reynolds, Dapretto Mirella, Iacoboni Marco   Culture in the mind's mirror: how anthropology and neuroscience can inform a model of the neural substrate for cultural imitative learning Progress in brain research, 2009; 178(3): 175-90.
Hubbard Amy L, Wilson Stephen M, Callan Daniel E, Dapretto Mirella   Giving speech a hand: gesture modulates activity in auditory cortex during speech perception Human brain mapping, 2009; 30(3): 1028-37.
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Masten Carrie L, Borofsky Larissa A, Dapretto Mirella, Fuligni Andrew J, Lieberman Matthew D   Neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescents and adults: when social perspective-taking informs self-perception Child development, 2009; 80(4): 1016-38.
Masten Carrie L, Eisenberger Naomi I, Borofsky Larissa A, Pfeifer Jennifer H, McNealy Kristin, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   Neural correlates of social exclusion during adolescence: understanding the distress of peer rejection Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2009; 4(2): 143-57.
Lu Lisa H, Dapretto Mirella, O'Hare Elizabeth D, Kan Eric, McCourt Sarah T, Thompson Paul M, Toga Arthur W, Bookheimer Susan Y, Sowell Elizabeth R   Relationships between brain activation and brain structure in normally developing children Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2009; 19(11): 2595-604.
Bookheimer Susan Y, Wang A Ting, Scott Ashley, Sigman Marian, Dapretto Mirella   Frontal contributions to face processing differences in autism: evidence from fMRI of inverted face processing Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS, 2008; 14(6): 922-32.
Pfeifer, J. H. Iacoboni, M. Mazziotta, J. C. Dapretto, M.   Mirroring others' emotions relates to empathy and interpersonal competence in children Neuroimage, 2008; 39(4): 2076-85.
Uddin Lucina Q, Davies Mari S, Scott Ashley A, Zaidel Eran, Bookheimer Susan Y, Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   Neural basis of self and other representation in autism: an FMRI study of self-face recognition PloS one, 2008; 3(10): e3526.
Pfeifer, J. H. Lieberman, M. D. Dapretto, M.   "I know you are but what am I?!": neural bases of self- and social knowledge retrieval in children and adults J Cogn Neurosci, 2007; 19(8): 1323-37.
McNealy, K. Mazziotta, J. C. Dapretto, M.   Cracking the language code: neural mechanisms underlying speech parsing J Neurosci, 2006; 26(29): 7629-39.
Wang, A. T. Lee, S. S. Sigman, M. Dapretto, M.   Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context Brain, 2006; 129(Pt 4): 932-43.
Iacoboni, M. Dapretto, M.   The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction Nat Rev Neurosci, 2006; 7(12): 942-51.
Dapretto, M. Davies, M. S. Pfeifer, J. H. Scott, A. A. Sigman, M. Bookheimer, S. Y. Iacoboni, M.   Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders Nat Neurosci, 2006; 9(1): 28-30.
Dapretto, M. Lee, S. S. Caplan, R.   A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of discourse coherence in typically developing children Neuroreport, 2005; 16(15): 1661-5.
Wang, A. T. Dapretto, M. Hariri, A. R. Sigman, M. Bookheimer, S. Y.   Neural correlates of facial affect processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 2004; 43(4): 481-90.
Hernandez, A. E. Kotz, S. A. Hofmann, J. Valentin, V. V. Dapretto, M. Bookheimer, S. Y.   The neural correlates of grammatical gender decisions in Spanish Neuroreport, 2004; 15(5): 863-6.
Hernandez, A. E. Dapretto, M. Mazziotta, J. Bookheimer, S.   Language switching and language representation in Spanish-English bilinguals: an fMRI study Neuroimage, 2001; 14(2): 510-20.
Caplan, R. Dapretto, M.   Making sense during conversation: an fMRI study Neuroreport, 2001; 12(16): 3625-32.
Woods, R. P. Dapretto, M. Sicotte, N. L. Toga, A. W. Mazziotta, J. C.   Creation and use of a Talairach-compatible atlas for accurate, automated, nonlinear intersubject registration, and analysis of functional imaging data Hum Brain Mapp, 1999; 8(2-3): 73-9.
Dapretto, M. Bookheimer, S. Y.   Form and content: dissociating syntax and semantics in sentence comprehension Neuron, 1999; 24(2): 427-32.
Bookheimer, S. Y. Dapretto, M. Karmarkar, U.   Functional MRI in children with epilepsy Dev Neurosci, 1999; 21(3-5): 191-9.
Masten Carrie L, Eisenberger Naomi I, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Colich Natalie L, Dapretto Mirella   Associations among pubertal development, empathic ability, and neural responses while witnessing peer rejection in adolescence Child development, 2013; 84(4): 1338-54.
Losin Elizabeth A Reynolds, Cross Katy A, Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   Neural processing of race during imitation: Self-Similarity Versus Social Status Human brain mapping, 2013; 84(4): .
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Kahn Lauren E, Merchant Junaid S, Peake Shannon J, Veroude Kim, Masten Carrie L, Lieberman Matthew D, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   Longitudinal change in the neural bases of adolescent social self-evaluations: effects of age and pubertal development The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2013; 33(17): 7415-9.
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Merchant Junaid S, Colich Natalie L, Hernandez Leanna M, Rudie Jeff D, Dapretto Mirella   Neural and behavioral responses during self-evaluative processes differ in youth with and without autism Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2013; 43(2): 272-85.
Losin Elizabeth A Reynolds, Iacoboni Macro, Martin Alia, Dapretto Mirella   Own-gender imitation activates the brain's reward circuitry Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2012; 7(7): 804-10.
Rudie Jeffrey D, Hernandez Leanna M, Brown Jesse A, Beck-Pancer Devora, Colich Natalie L, Gorrindo Philip, Thompson Paul M, Geschwind Daniel H, Bookheimer Susan Y, Levitt Pat, Dapretto Mirella   Autism-associated promoter variant in MET impacts functional and structural brain networks Neuron, 2012; 75(5): 904-15.
Hubbard Amy L, McNealy Kristin, Scott-Van Zeeland Ashley A, Callan Daniel E, Bookheimer Susan Y, Dapretto Mirella   Altered integration of speech and gesture in children with autism spectrum disorders Brain and behavior, 2012; 2(5): 606-19.
Sepeta Leigh, Tsuchiya Naotsugu, Davies Mari S, Sigman Marian, Bookheimer Susan Y, Dapretto Mirella   Abnormal social reward processing in autism as indexed by pupillary responses to happy faces Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders, 2012; 4(1): 17.
Hutman Ted, Rozga Agata, DeLaurentis Angeline, Sigman Marian, Dapretto Mirella   Infants' pre-empathic behaviors are associated with language skills Infant behavior & development, 2012; 35(3): 561-9.
Rudie Jeffrey D, Shehzad Zarrar, Hernandez Leanna M, Colich Natalie L, Bookheimer Susan Y, Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   Reduced functional integration and segregation of distributed neural systems underlying social and emotional information processing in autism spectrum disorders Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2012; 22(5): 1025-37.
Muscatell Keely A, Morelli Sylvia A, Falk Emily B, Way Baldwin M, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Galinsky Adam D, Lieberman Matthew D, Dapretto Mirella, Eisenberger Naomi I   Social status modulates neural activity in the mentalizing network NeuroImage, 2012; 60(3): 1771-7.
Losin Elizabeth A Reynolds, Iacoboni Marco, Martin Alia, Cross Katy A, Dapretto Mirella   Race modulates neural activity during imitation NeuroImage, 2012; 59(4): 3594-603.
Moore William E, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Masten Carrie L, Mazziotta John C, Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   Facing puberty: associations between pubertal development and neural responses to affective facial displays Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2012; 7(1): 35-43.
Dapretto Mirella, Davies Mari S, Pfeifer Jennifer H, Scott Ashley A, Sigman Marian, Bookheimer Susan Y, Iacoboni Marco   Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders Nature neuroscience, 2006; 9(1): 28-30.
Dapretto Mirella, Lee Susan S, Caplan Rochelle   A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of discourse coherence in typically developing children Neuroreport, 2005; 16(15): 1661-5.
McNealy Kristin, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   Age and experience shape developmental changes in the neural basis of language-related learning Developmental science, 2011; 14(6): 1261-82.
Wang A Ting, Dapretto Mirella, Hariri Ahmad R, Sigman Marian, Bookheimer Susan Y   Neural correlates of facial affect processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2004; 43(4): 481-90.
Hernandez Arturo E, Kotz Sonja A, Hofmann Juliane, Valentin Vivian V, Dapretto Mirella, Bookheimer Susan Y   The neural correlates of grammatical gender decisions in Spanish Neuroreport, 2004; 15(5): 863-6.
Davies Mari S, Dapretto Mirella, Sigman Marian, Sepeta Leigh, Bookheimer Susan Y   Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders Brain and behavior, 2011; 1(1): 1-11.
Masten Carrie L, Colich Natalie L, Rudie Jeffrey D, Bookheimer Susan Y, Eisenberger Naomi I, Dapretto Mirella   An fMRI investigation of responses to peer rejection in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2011; 1(3): 260-70.
Nuñez S Christopher, Dapretto Mirella, Katzir Tami, Starr Ariel, Bramen Jennifer, Kan Eric, Bookheimer Susan, Sowell Elizabeth R   fMRI of syntactic processing in typically developing children: structural correlates in the inferior frontal gyrus Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2011; 1(3): 313-23.
Greene Deanna J, Colich Natalie, Iacoboni Marco, Zaidel Eran, Bookheimer Susan Y, Dapretto Mirella   Atypical neural networks for social orienting in autism spectrum disorders NeuroImage, 2011; 56(1): 354-62.
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Masten Carrie L, Moore William E, Oswald Tasha M, Mazziotta John C, Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   Entering adolescence: resistance to peer influence, risky behavior, and neural changes in emotion reactivity Neuron, 2011; 69(5): 1029-36.
Dennis Emily L, Jahanshad Neda, Rudie Jeffrey D, Brown Jesse A, Johnson Kori, McMahon Katie L, de Zubicaray Greig I, Montgomery Grant, Martin Nicholas G, Wright Margaret J, Bookheimer Susan Y, Dapretto Mirella, Toga Arthur W, Thompson Paul M   Altered structural brain connectivity in healthy carriers of the autism risk gene, CNTNAP2 Brain connectivity, 2011; 1(6): 447-59.
Kilroy Emily, Liu Collin Y, Yan Lirong, Kim Yoon Chun, Dapretto Mirella, Mendez Mario F, Wang Danny J J   Relationships between Cerebral Blood Flow and IQ in Typically Developing Children and Adolescents Journal of cognitive science, 2011; 12(2): 151-170.
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Iacoboni Marco, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   Mirroring others' emotions relates to empathy and interpersonal competence in children NeuroImage, 2008; 39(4): 2076-85.
Pfeifer Jennifer H, Lieberman Matthew D, Dapretto Mirella   "I know you are but what am I?!": neural bases of self- and social knowledge retrieval in children and adults Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2007; 19(8): 1323-37.
Wang A Ting, Lee Susan S, Sigman Marian, Dapretto Mirella   Reading affect in the face and voice: neural correlates of interpreting communicative intent in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders Archives of general psychiatry, 2007; 64(6): 698-708.
Iacoboni Marco, Dapretto Mirella   The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 2006; 7(12): 942-51.
Wang A Ting, Lee Susan S, Sigman Marian, Dapretto Mirella   Developmental changes in the neural basis of interpreting communicative intent Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2006; 1(2): 107-21.
McNealy Kristin, Mazziotta John C, Dapretto Mirella   Cracking the language code: neural mechanisms underlying speech parsing The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2006; 26(29): 7629-39.
Wang A Ting, Lee Susan S, Sigman Marian, Dapretto Mirella   Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context Brain : a journal of neurology, 2006; 129(Pt 4): 932-43.
Lee Susan S, Dapretto Mirella   Metaphorical vs. literal word meanings: fMRI evidence against a selective role of the right hemisphere NeuroImage, 2006; 29(2): 536-44.

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