Prof Faraneh Vargha-Khadem
Overview
Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khadem is a Clinical-Academic Lead for Neuropsychology, and Senior Consultant Neuropsychologist is at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).
Her research and clinical work is directed towards understanding the cognitive and behavioural deficits of brain-injured children in relation to the underlying brain abnormality.
Her work is focused on developmental amnesia, brain and speech abnormalities associated with the mutation of the FOXP2 gene, and reorganisation of function after neurosurgery for epilepsy.
Professor Vargha-Khadem completed her doctoral studies at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University, Canada.
She subsequently joined the Faculty of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University where she held a research lectureship for two years before moving to London.
Having accepted a faculty research position at the Institute of Child Health, University College London (UCL) in 1983, she went on to undertake the leadership of the Clinical Neuropsychology Service at GOSH in 1987, where she has remained to the present time.
During this period, she has helped create the first academic Unit of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the UK for which she is Head, and where she also holds a chair, and its clinical counterpart, the Department of Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychology at GOSH.
The academic and clinical staff in the Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychology Service work collaboratively to offer a comprehensive neuropsychology service for children, adolescents and their families. Staff members are committed to translational research with the aim of improving service delivery for children with chronic or acquired brain disorders.
She is also Director of the UCL Centre for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000, she has received a number of awards, including the 2006 Jean Louis Signoret Prize for her contributions to genetics of behaviour.
Languages Spoken:
- English
- Persian
- French
Credentials
- Developmental amnesia and other memory disorders
- Genetically-based speech and language disorders
- Plasticity and reorganisation of memory and language after brain injury
- Cognitive and educational outcome after surgery for control of epilepsy
- Long-term outcome after traumatic brain injury
- The consequences of treatment, and long-term outcome in survivors of brain tumours
- Medico-legal expert witness in neuropsychology
- C Psychol, F Med Sci
Professor Vargha-Khadem is internationally known for her research on development of cognitive function after brain injury in children. She has published over 135 articles (112 in peer reviewed neuroscience and medical journals), and book chapters.
Her research has been supported by major programme grants from the Medical Research Council, Action Medical Research, The Wellcome Trust, and the National Institutes of Health, USA, and charities, such as The Epilepsy Research Foundation UK.
News & Publications
- Professor Vargha-Khadem’s personal website
- “Why Do We Talk?” BBC Horizon, December 2009
- “Can you train your brain?” BBC Bang Goes the Theory, April 2010
- ‘How does your memory work’, Horizon, BBC 2, 25th March 2008
- "Scientists Report Finding a Gene for Speech" The New York Times 4 October 2001…
- "Brain damage in children can take years to affect behaviour" The Guardian 7 No…
- “Babies can recognise words” The Independent 27 September 1997
Gadian D.G., Mishkin M., and Vargha-Khadem F. (1999) Early brain pathology and its relationship to cognitive impairment: The role of quantitative magnetic resonance techniques. In Plasticity and Epilepsy (Advances in Neurology) H Stefan, F Andermann, P Chauvel and S Shorvon (eds.). Lippincott-Raven Publishers, pp 307-315.
Muter V. and Vargha-Khadem F. (2000) Neuropsychological and educational management. In Clinics in Developmental Medicine: Congenital Hemiplegia, BGR Neville and R Goodman (eds.). MacKeith Press, pp 179-194.
Vargha-Khadem, F. (2003) From Genes to Brain and Behavior: The KE Family and the FOXP2 Gene, in L. Shriberg & T. Campbell (eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Childhood Apraxia of Speech Research Symposium.
Liegeois, F., Morgan, A.T. and Vargha-Khadem, F. (2006). Neurocognitive correlates of developmental verbal and orofacial dyspraxia. In Human Behavior and the Developing Brain: Atypical Development, Coch, D., Dawson, G. and Fischer, K. New York: Guilford Press.
Vargha-Khadem, F. & Liegeois, F. From speech to gene: The KE family and the FOXP2. In On Being Moved. (2006). Braten, S. (ed). John Benjamins Publishing Company Co. The Netherlands, pp 137-146.
Rankin, P. and Vargha-Khadem, F. Neuropsychological evaluation – children. (2007). In: Epilepsy: A Comprehensive Textbook, Engel, J. and Pedley, T.A. (eds.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Salmond, C.H., Adlam, A-L. R., Gadian, D.G. and Vargha-Khadem, F. (2008). High functioning autistic spectrum disorder vs. developmental amnesia: a comparison of memory profiles in relation to neuropathology. In Autism, Boucher, J. Cambridge, CUP.
Morgan, A., Liégeois, F. & Vargha-Khadem, F. (2010). Speech Motor Control: Motor speech profile in relation to site of brain pathology: A developmental perspective. In Speech Motor Control: New developments in basic and applied research, Massen, B. & van Lieshout, PHHM (Eds). Oxford, OUP.
Vargha-Khadem, F., Isaacs, E., Watkins, K. & Mishkin, M. Ontogenetic Specialization of Hemispheric Function. In Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease in Childhood, Ganesan, V. & Kirkham, F. (Eds) (2011). London, Mac Keith Press.
Vargha-Khadem, F. (2011). Extent and limits of speech and language organization after early left hemisphere injury. Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
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