Publications

Please note: Much of my work focuses on individual differences associated with  socioeconomic status (SES). I do this work because I am interested in the mechanisms by which experiences influence development, and I believe that understanding these mechanisms yields invaluable insight into ways to support children from all backgrounds to have every possible opportunity to thrive — in whatever way thriving looks like. I am keenly aware that this research, if misinterpreted, can be harmful. I do not believe nor assert that parents are in any way responsible for the malicious cycle of poverty. Nor is there a single “right” way to raise a child. I also believe that the language we use and the way we talk about these issues matters, and those of us with undue privilege must keep this at the forefront as we communicate research and work for change. I invite you to please contact me with any thoughts and suggestions. 

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Asterisk (*) indicates a mentored student/trainee author.

Journal Articles

*Taylor, E., *Abdurokhmonova, G., & Romeo, R.R. (in press). Socioeconomic Status and Reading Development: Moving from “Deficit” to “Adaptation” in Neurobiological Models of Experience-Dependent Learning. Mind, Brain, Education.

Romeo, R.R., Perrachione, T.K., Olson, H.O., Halverson, K.K., Gabrieli, J.D.E., & Christodoulou, J.A. (2022). Socioeconomic dissociations in the neural and cognitive bases of reading disorders. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 58(101175). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101175

Romeo, R.R., *Uchida, L., & Christodoulou, J.A. (2022). Socioeconomic status and reading outcomes: Neurocognitive and behavioral correlates. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2022(52-70). https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20475

Al Dahhan, N.Z., Halverson, K., Peek, C., Wilmot, D., D’Mello, A., Romeo, R.R., Meegoda, O., Imhof, A., Wade, K., Sridha, A., Falke, E., Centanni, T.M., Gabrieli, JDE, Christodoulou, J.A. Dissociating executive function and ADHD influences on reading ability in children with dyslexia. Cortex, 153, 126-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.03.025

Romeo, R.R., Flournoy, J.C., McLaughlin, K.A., & Lengua, L.J. (2022). Language development as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status to executive functioning development in preschool. Developmental Science, e13227. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13227

Romeo, R.R., Pezanowski, R., Merrill, K., Hargrave, S., & Hansen, A. (2022). Benefits and barriers to communication with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Journal of Child Healthcare. https://doi.org/10.1177/13674935221076216

Romeo, R.R.*, Leonard, J.A.*, Robinson, S.T., Mackey, A.P., West, M.R., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021). Replication and extension of a family-based training program to improve cognitive abilities in young children.  Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2021.1931999  PDF

Romeo, R.R., Choi, A.B., Gabard-Durnam, L.J., Wilkinson, C.L., Levin, A.R., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Nelson, C.A.  (2021). Parent language input predicts neuroscillatory patterns underlying language development in infants at risk of Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05024-6 PDF

Romeo, R.R., Leonard, J.A., Grotzinger, H.M., Robinson, S.T., Takada, M., Mackey, A.P., Scherer, E., Rowe, M.L., West, M.R., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021).  Neuroplasticity associated with conversational turn-taking following a family-based intervention. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 49, 100967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100967  PDF

Hubbard, N.A., Romeo, R.R., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M., Imhof, A., Bauer, C., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2020). Reward-sensitive basal ganglia stabilize the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns in adolescents. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(8), 1508–1524. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn_a_01572  PDF

Cychosz, M., Romeo, R. R., Soderstrom, M., Scaff, C. H., Ganek, H., Cristia, A., Casillas, M., Bang, J., & Weisleder, A. (2020). Long form recordings of everyday life: Ethics for best practices. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 1951–1969. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01365-9  PDF

Romeo, R. R. (2019). Socioeconomic and experiential influences on the neurobiology of language development. Invited review at Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups: Special Issue on the Neurobiology of Language Development and Disorders, 4, 1229–1238. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERSP-19-00073  PDF

Guell, X., D’Mello, A., Romeo, R. R., Hubbard, N., Schmahmann, J. D., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Gabrieli, J.D.E, & Anteraper, S. A. (2019). Functional territories of human dentate nucleus. Cerebral Cortex, epub bhz247, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz247  PDF

Leonard, J. A., Romeo, R. R., Park, A. T., Takada, M., Robinson, S.T., Grotzinger, H., Finn, A. S., Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Mackey, A. P. (2019). Associations between cortical thickness and reasoning vary by socioeconomic status in early childhood and adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100641  PDF

Romeo, R. R., Segaran, J., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Yendiki, A., Rowe, M. L., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Language exposure relates to structural neural connectivity in childhood.  Journal of Neuroscience, 38(36), 7870-7877 doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0484-18.2018  PDF

Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Rowe, M. L., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Beyond the “30 million word gap:” Children’s conversational exposure is associated with language-related brain function. Psychological Science, 29(5), 700–710. doi:10.1177/0956797617742725  PDF

  • Most cited article in Psychological Science, 2018-2021

Romeo, R. R., Christodoulou, J. A,  Halverson, K. K., Murtagh, J., Cyr, A. B., Schimmel, C., Chang, P., Hook, P. E., & Gabrieli J. D. E. (2017). Socioeconomic status and reading disability: Neuroanatomy and plasticity in response to intervention. Cerebral Cortex, 28(7), 2297-2312. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx131  PDF

Tuomainen, O., Hazan, V., & Romeo, R.(2016). Do talkers produce less dispersed phoneme categories in a clear speaking style? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140(4), EL320. doi:10.1121/1.4964815  PDF

Romeo R., Hazan V., & Pettinato M. (2013). Developmental and gender-related trends of intra-talker variability in consonant production. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(5), 3781 – 3792. doi:10.1121/1.4824160   PDF

Invited Book Chapters

Romeo, R.R. (2023). The neuroscience of early literacy development. In S. Cabell., S. Neuman, & N. Patton Terry (Eds.) Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 2nd edition. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Rowe, M.L., Romeo, R.R., & Leech, K.A.  (2023). Early environmental influences on language. In S. Cabell., S. Neuman, & N. Patton Terry (Eds.) Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 2nd edition. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Romeo, R.R. & Christodoulou, J.A. (2022). How Neuroscience Can Help to Overcome Adversity in Education. In A. Holliman & K. Sheehy (Eds.), Overcoming Adversity in Education. Abington, UK: Taylor & Francis. https://www.routledge.com/Overcoming-Adversity-in-Education/Holliman-Sheehy/p/book/9781032017785

Romeo, R. R., Imhof, A., Bhatia, P., Christodoulou, J. A. (2018). Relationships between socioeconomic status and reading development: Cognitive outcomes and neural mechanisms. In S. J. Lipina, & M. S. Segretin (Eds.) Exploring the neuroscience of poverty (pp. 166-198). Erice, Italy: International Mind, Brain and Education School (Ettore Majorana Foundation for Scientific Culture). ISBN 978-987-86-2055-8.
Full book in English and Spanish for download