Team MEMBERS and AlumNI
Aveline Ajalan Vasu
Fabeha Husain
Jean Teh
Suan Peen Foo
Shuping Lim
Sherlyn Chan
Samantha Yeo
Senior Clinical Psychologist (Expertise in Neurodiversity)Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (Psychopathology & fNIRS)
Research Assistant (The Executive)Aveline Ajalan Vasu, Psy.D, is a Senior Clinical Psychologist who has been integral in training the research team on various psychological tools and in ensuring reliability between team members. She also seeks to understand the neurodevelopmental needs of the population and examines ways to efficiently screen for individualised risks in the school setting. Her PsyD thesis was focused on siblings of individuals with developmental differences. She also runs qualitative studies in understanding the perspectives of teachers and clinicians in Singapore in regards to their knowledge of executive functions and how to support these functions in children with special needs.
Fabeha Husain, PhD, is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the lab who has used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to understand neural markers of various affective conditions. Her PhD thesis within the NUS Department of Psychological Medicine was on classifying psychiatric disorders using cerebral haemodynamic responses. In this lab, she has been creating cognitive task paradigms, processing EEG data, and identifying early factors associated with later internalising trajectory of children. She will soon embark on more fNIRS studies with children, adolescents, and mothers of our participants.
Jean Teh, BSc Honours, is the glue that holds the team together. Not only is she the clear administrative executive of the team, she has many research interests. She is studying the social disparity of language stimulation and will be delving more into the topic of language in the development of executive functioning. While she enjoys spending time with colleagues and kids at work, she spends her weekends caring and feeding stray animals in Singapore.
Research Assistant (All-Star Swimmer)Specialist Associate (Best Clinic Helper)Research Associate
(EEG Processing Queen)Senior Research Psychologist (Treasured Critical Thinker)Meredith Han
PhD student (NUS-King's College)Yashna Sagar
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (EEG/eyetracking/EF)Meredith Han, BSc Honours (Cardiff), is interested in understanding the environmental and genetic influences on emotional difficulties, particularly internalising symptoms, across childhood. This also includes examining underlying neural mechanisms involved in its development and maintenance. She hopes to better understand the transmission of antenatal maternal mental health to the offspring by examining underlying neural mechanisms using EEG techniques. Outside of her studies, she enjoys nature walks, spoken word poetry and the occasional episode of “The Big Bang Theory”.
Passionate about working with kids, Samantha Yeo, BA Hons Neuroscience (UMich), examines the influences of media use in the context of the family on brain development. She is now adding LENA and language use during parent-child interactions to better understand home environments. More recently, she is examining the neurodevelopmental trajectory of internalising symptoms in children with early externalising symptoms or attention-deficit conditions. She enjoys nature, a nice run or swim, and the sunshine (yes, even in this humidity in Singapore) or, one of her favorites, eating my way through town!
Sherlyn Chan has worked over 10 years within the National University Health System and she is very knowledgeable about children with developmental and behavioural differences who come to NUH for their care. She is pursuing additional training in research coordination and will soon be recruiting clinical population of children for research studies of this lab. She comes from a family of fantastic cooks and bakers. She likes sharing sweet treats with the team. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling to different countries around the world.
Shuping Lim, MSc Neuroscience (University College London), is a research associate in the lab who investigates early vulnerabilities and neural markers to later mental health problems through EEG and behavioural techniques. She is well-versed in a number of statistical and computing platforms and leads the EEG processing of our group. She is a fan of mala (especially with spam) and enjoys spending time at a cozy café with her family and friends.
Suan Peen, Postgraduate Diploma in Neuropsychology (University College London) and MSc in Developmental Psychology, is well-practised developmental psychologist who is passionate about learning how early life experiences and protective factors shape human brain development. In this lab, she has embarked on validating executive function measures, assisting her PI to elucidate the dimensional structure of executive function (EF). Suan Peen is also curious about the links between a child’s self-concept, meta-cognitive thinking skills, and how that impacts emotional resilience. Beyond academic life, Suan Peen enjoys travelling to new places and a good outdoor camping experience!
Yashna Sagar, PhD in Research Psychology (UWA), has delved into the understanding of prematurity and executive functions in her PhD programme. In this lab, she continues to develop her expertise in executive functions by incorporating objective psychological tasks, EEG, and eyetracking into cognitive neuroscience research questions. More recently, she has been looking into parenting factors in Singapore and their associations with later internalising symptoms in children with early executive function deficits.
ALUMNI
Naeem Sani (NUS) until end 2022
Jane Sum (NUS, A*STAR) until Jan 2023
Dr Aishworiya Ramkumar (NUH, NUS) until mid 2021
Ong Zi Yan (A*STAR) until end 2022
Dr Nixi Wang (NUS) until Oct 2023
Germaine Tng (A*STAR) until mid 2023
Jean Teh (NUS) until mid 2024
Dr Yashna Sagar (NUS) until mid 2025
Suan Peen Foo (NUS) until mid 2025
Dr Aveline Ajalan Vasu (NUS) until mid 2025