Vardan Arutiunian
Portrait of Dr. Vardan Arutiunian

Dr. Vardan Arutiunian, PhD

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscientist

I study the neural and genetic mechanisms underlying individual differences in neurodevelopment, with a particular focus on language, cognition, and sensory processing in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

About Me

Postdoctoral Fellow
Neuroscience of Early Development Laboratory
Azrieli Research Centre of CHU Sainte-Justine
University of Montreal
Montreal, Canada

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Neuroscience of Early Development Laboratory at the Azrieli Research Centre of CHU Sainte-Justine and the University of Montreal (Montreal, Canada). I received my Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Centre for Language and Brain at HSE University (Moscow, Russia), where my research focused on language and communication impairments in autistic children. I subsequently completed postdoctoral training in the Psychophysiology and Behavioral Systems Laboratory at Seattle Children's Research Institute (Seattle, USA), where I expanded my research on the neural mechanisms underlying language, cognition, and sensory processing in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

My research integrates behavioral, genetic, and multimodal neuroimaging approaches to investigate the biological basis of individual differences in neurodevelopment. I use electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), genomics, and advanced statistical approaches to study brain development, language, cognition, and sensory processing across development. My work aims to identify the neural and genetic mechanisms underlying clinical heterogeneity in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders, discover biologically meaningful biomarkers, and improve our understanding of the pathways linking genes, brain function, and behavior.

My current research combines neuroimaging, genomics, and deep behavioral phenotyping to investigate autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders in children, infants, and their first-degree relatives. I am particularly interested in identifying early neural markers of developmental outcomes, understanding familial influences on brain function, and translating neurobiological discoveries into clinically meaningful biomarkers for precision medicine and clinical trials.

Throughout my career, I have received multiple research and teaching awards from organizations in Russia, the European Union, and the United States. I have presented my research at international conferences in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.