Jessica Verpeut

Jessica Verpeut is an Assistant Professor in the behavioral neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on the influence of cerebellar activity during development on neocortical structure, social and flexible behavior utilizing whole-brain imaging and unsupervised behavior classification in rodent models. The ultimate goal of her research program is to understand how the brain develops to produce typical behavior. The cerebellum has highly conserved neural architecture and circuitry with distal connections to known motor, cognitive, and social regions. Pediatric injury of the cerebellum is highly associated with neural developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Understanding how the cerebellum fine-tunes neural development is essential to providing better diagnostic criteria and outcomes for individuals with neural developmental disorders.

Dr. Verpeut received her undergraduate degree in animal science and psychology from Pennsylvania State University and her doctoral degree in endocrinology and animal biosciences at Rutgers University. As a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the New Jersey Brain Injury Research Committee, Jessica developed a chemogenetic cerebellar model of autism and mapped cerebello-cortical connections that contribute to flexible behavior.