Dr. Aleksandra (Ola) Dopierala is a postdoctoral researcher specialising in developmental fNIRS studies. With a Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw in Poland, her research focused on understanding the neural correlates of speech processing in infancy. Ola is dedicated to making a positive impact in developmental neuroscience. Currently she conducts innovative fNIRS studies in naturalistic settings. Her passion lies in unraveling the complexities of infant cognition and bridging the gap between research and everyday experiences.

In my work, I study the neural correlates of cognition in infants. I use a variety of methods, mostly fNIRS but also eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI. I’m currently working on the Exploration project, which measures infant brain responses during naturalistic interactions with parents. Unlike most previous studies, which place the infant in front of a screen and present series of repetitive stimuli, in the Exploration project we allow infants to actively choose what they want to do as their parent engages them in a free play session.

Dopierała, A., Mercure, E., Lopez-Perez, D., Pluta, A., Wolak, T., & Tomalski, P. (2020). Development of neural correlates of audiovisual speech integration in infancy: An fNIRS study pre-registration. Open Science Framework.

Dopierała, A., Mercure, E., Lopez-Perez, D., Pluta, A., Wolak, T., & Tomalski, P. (2019). Development of cortical responses to visual speech in infancy: An fNIRS study pre-registration. Open Science Framework.

Dopierała, A., Przewodzka, A., & Tomalski, P. (2019). Near-infrared spectroscopy in healthy subjects: Possible application in aviation and aviation medicine. The Polish Journal of Aviation Medicine, 25(2), 25.

Tomalski, P., & Dopierała, A. (2018). Functional brain development – Example from face and speech processing in infancy. Polskie Forum Psychologiczne, 23(1), 64-77.

Dopierała, A. A., Pérez, D. L., Mercure, E., Pluta, A., Malinowska-Korczak, A., Evans, S., … & Tomalski, P. (2023). The Development of Cortical Responses to the Integration of Audiovisual Speech in Infancy. Brain Topography, 1-17.

Dopierala, A. A., & Emberson, L. L. (2023). Towards imaging the infant brain at play. Communicative & Integrative Biology, 16(1), 2206204.

Dopierała, A., Mercure, E., Lopez-Perez, D., Pluta, A., Wolak, T., & Tomalski, P. (Accepted). Watching talking faces: The development of cortical representation of visual syllables in infancy.

Dopierala, A. A., & Emberson, L. L. (2022). Cognitive development: Looking for perceptual awareness in human infants. Current Biology, 32(7), R322-R324.

Di Lonardo Burr, S. M., Pirazzoli, L., Dopierała, A. A., Bejjanki, V. R., Nelson, C. A., & Emberson, L. (under review). The Development of Social Perception Networks in Low-and Middle-income Infants: Longitudinal Assessments of fNIRS Background Functional Connectivity.

• Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award, International Congress of Infant Studies, Ottawa, 2022
• 1st Place for Best Presentation, 3-Minute Slam Postdoc Competition, UBC, 2022
• Audience Favourite, 3-Minute Slam Postdoc Competition, UBC, 2022
• Best Presentation, Language Sciences Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Research Day, UBC