Adele Diamond

Last updated
Adele Diamond
OC FRSC
Adele Diamond.jpg
Born
Adele Dorothy Diamond

New York City, New York
Alma mater
SpouseDonald Druin
Scientific career
Fields Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Institutions University of British Columbia
Thesis Behavior changes between 6 to 12 months of age: what can they tell us about how the mind of the infant is changing?  (1983)
Doctoral advisor Jerome Kagan
Website www.devcogneuro.com

Adele Dorothy Diamond OC FRSC is a professor of neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, where she holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. [1]

Contents

Her research focuses on the development of executive functions and the biological and environmental factors that influence them, particularly in children. [2]

Diamond’s work spans developmental psychology, neuroscience, and education, with research examining the role of the prefrontal cortex in cognitive control, attention, and working memory. [3]

Her research has been widely cited in studies of neurodevelopmental conditions, including phenylketonuria and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as in research on early childhood education and interventions aimed at supporting executive function development. [4] [5]

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for contributions to developmental cognitive neuroscience and research on executive functions. [6]


Early life and education

Diamond grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and attended public schools (PS 165, Parsons Junior High, and John Bowne High School). [7] She graduated from John Bowne High School as Valedictorian. [7]

She attended Swarthmore College on a four-year Swarthmore National Scholarship and graduated in 1975, majoring in Sociology-Anthropology and Psychology. [7] [8] She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with the highest honor in the course program of study. [7] In 1972, while still at Swarthmore, she attended the London School of Economics.

Diamond did her PhD graduate work at Harvard University (graduating in 1983), with a four-year NSF Graduate Fellowship and a three-year Danforth Graduate Fellowship. [8]

Although officially a PhD candidate in Psychology, she spent her first four years of graduate school working primarily in anthropology and sociology. [8] At the time the department was formally the Department of Psychology and Social Relations, which attempted to maintain interdisciplinary relationships between psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists. [9] [10] At that time, Harvard had an NIMH-funded Pre-doctoral Training Program in Cross-Cultural Psychological Research and the program awarded Diamond three years of funding for her dissertation: one year to prepare to go into the field, one year to go anywhere in the world to do the research (she chose the South Pacific), and one year to write up the results. [8] Her thesis topic was "Is the need to be master of your fate intrinsically human or a product of Western culture?" [8] However, she didn't think she was coming up with a good way to study it and that the famous people advising her were not either. [8] They seemed not to be concerned, [8] saying, "Don't worry. You do great work." Not wanting to go and do poor science, Diamond abandoned the topic and returned the money for Years 2 and 3. [8]

Having given up her initial thesis topic, she returned to a question that Jerome Kagan had posed in Diamond's first year in graduate school: "If infants all over the world show the same cognitive changes at roughly the same time, those changes cannot be due entirely to learning or experience, because their experiences are too diverse; there must be a maturational component; what might that maturational component be?" [8] To answer that question, Diamond turned to neuroscience. [8]

Diamond hypothesized that maturational changes in the brain's prefrontal cortex made possible the impressive cognitive advances seen between 6 and 12 months of age. [8] At that time no one was studying the prefrontal cortex or any topic in cognitive neuroscience in the Harvard Psychology Department. [8] Diamond learned from books on her own and was granted permission to add Nelson Butters from the Boston VA (who had published widely on the anatomy and functions of prefrontal cortex) to her thesis committee. [8]

To get hard evidence on the brain to support her hypothesis, Diamond went to Yale University School of Medicine to work with Patricia Goldman-Rakic. [7] That work was supported by Sloan and NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards. [7]

Research

Diamond organized a conference, "The Development and Neural Basis of Higher Cognitive Functions," that brought together developmental psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists who were using the same behavioral paradigms but were unaware of that fact. The conference and resulting book served to jumpstart many research collaborations and the nascent field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. [11]

Diamond's team discovered a long-lasting visual deficit if children with phenylketonuria are not started on a low-phenylalanine diet within days of birth (the norm had been to start them within two weeks of birth). [12]

Her 2005 paper on the fundamental neurobiological and clinical differences between the inattentive-type ADHD and those ADHD types in which hyperactivity is present was titled "ADD (ADHD without hyperactivity), a neurobiologically and behaviorally distinct disorder from ADHD (with hyperactivity)". [5] Individuals with this inattentive subtype of ADHD are prone to being easily bored, having slower reaction times, poor working memory, and are generally under-aroused. [5]

Much of Diamond's work has started with the premise that even though a child may appear incapable of doing or understanding something, if the question is posed differently or the concept taught in new ways, the child can succeed. Diamond illustrated this approach first with infants' understanding of the concept of contiguity, [13] [14] then with their ability to grasp abstract concepts, [15] [16] [17] and next with children's ability to succeed on a Stroop-like task requiring memory and inhibition. [18] [19] [20] Her work focuses on how executive functions can allow individuals to control impulses, resist temptations, maintain focus, adapt to changing demands, and problem solve. [1]

In January 2026, Annual Review of Psychology listed the 2013 review article “Executive functions” among its “Highly Downloaded Articles,” based on download data from the previous 12 months. [21]

Diamond has also overseen over 24 million dollars in research funding. [22]

Selected awards and honors

In 2025, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. [23] (The Order of Canada is Canada's highest honor.)

That citation read: "Adele Diamond is a groundbreaking researcher and co-founder of the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. Through collaborations integrating diverse disciplines and her talent for knowledge translation, she has transformed our understanding of early cognitive development and the brain's prefrontal cortex. She has also shaped social policies, and improved medical and educational practices worldwide."

Also in 2025, Diamond received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Erikson Institute's Graduate School in Child Development in Chicago. [22]

The citation accompanying this award described her as a "ground-breaking researcher who changed the way we think about cognitive development in very young children" and noted that she co-founded the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

This was the fourth honorary degree awarded to Diamond. The other three are:

Her other honors include:

In 2019, Diamond's impact ranked in top 0.01% of scientists. [34]

Teacher and speaker

Diamond's courses have received numerous positive reviews throughout her career. [35] [36] She has almost 600 invited addresses, including hundreds of keynote addresses and over 30 named lectures. [37] She has spoken in North America and abroad (including in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia [Bali & Java], Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the UK [England, Scotland, and Wales]). [37]

Selected publications

Diamond has authored or co-authored about a hundred papers on her research work. Below are selected publications:

[38] [43] [39] [44] [48] [41] [40] [46] [50] [45] [49] [53] [51] [52] [42] [54] [47]

References

  1. 1 2 "Adele Diamond". Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  2. ↑ Diamond, A.; Lee, K. (2011). "Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4–12 years old". Science. 333 (6045): 959–964. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..959D. doi:10.1126/science.1204529. PMC   3159917 . PMID   21852486.
  3. ↑ Diamond, A. (2007). "Consequences of variations in genes that affect dopamine in prefrontal cortex". Cerebral Cortex. 17 (Suppl 1): 161–170. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm082. PMC   2238775 . PMID   17725999.
  4. ↑ Diamond, A.; Prevor, M.; Callender, G.; Druin, D. P. (1997). "Prefrontal cortex cognitive deficits in children treated early and continuously for PKU". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 62 (4): i–v, 1–208. doi:10.2307/1166208. JSTOR   1166208. PMID   9421921.
  5. 1 2 3 Diamond, A. (2005). "ADD (ADHD without hyperactivity), a neurobiologically and behaviorally distinct disorder from ADHD (with hyperactivity)". Development and Psychopathology. 17 (3): 807–825. doi:10.1017/S0954579405050388. PMC   1474811 . PMID   16262993.
  6. ↑ "Adele Diamond". Governor General of Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Diamond, A. "The publicly posted curriculum vitae of Adele Diamond" . Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Diamond, A. (2012). "How I came full circle from the social end of psychology, to neuroscience, and back again, in an effort to understand the development of cognitive control" (PDF). In Subotnik, R. F.; Robinson, A.; Callahan, C. M.; Gubbins, E. J. (eds.). Malleable Minds: Translating Insights from Psychology and Neuroscience to Gifted Education. Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, U. of Conn. pp. 55–84. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  9. ↑ "Department of Social Relations, Harvard University | People | The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments". waywiser.rc.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  10. ↑ Johnston, Barry V. (1998). "The contemporary crisis and the social relations department at Harvard: A case study in hegemony and disintegration" . The American Sociologist. 29 (3): 26–42. doi:10.1007/s12108-998-1003-1. S2CID   144418324.
  11. ↑ Diamond, A. (1990). The development and neural bases of higher cognitive functions. New York, NY: Academy of Sciences. pp. 433–472.
  12. ↑ Diamond, A. (2000). "Recent research findings on the effects of age at diet initiation on the visual system". Invited Presentation at the NIH Consensus Development Conference on "Phenylketonuria (PKU): Screening and Management," Bethesda, MD.
  13. ↑ Diamond, A.; Gilbert, J. (1989). "Development as progressive inhibitory control of action: Retrieval of a contiguous object". Cognitive Development. 4 (3): 223–249. doi:10.1016/0885-2014(89)90007-5.
  14. ↑ Diamond, A.; Lee, E.-Y. (2000). "Inability of 5-month-old infants to retrieve a contiguous object: A failure of conceptual understanding or of control of action?". Child Development. 71 (6): 1477–1494. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00241 . PMID   11194250.
  15. ↑ Diamond, A.; Churchland, A.; Cruess, L.; Kirkham, N. (1999). "Early developments in the ability to understand the relation between stimulus and reward". Developmental Psychology. 35 (6): 1507–1517. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.6.1507. PMID   10563738.
  16. ↑ Diamond, A.; Lee, E.-Y.; Hayden, M. (2003). "Early success in using the relation between stimulus and reward to deduce an abstract rule: Perceived physical connectedness is key". Developmental Psychology. 39 (5): 825–847. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.5.825. PMID   12952397.
  17. ↑ Diamond, A. (2006). "Bootstrapping conceptual deduction using physical connection: Rethinking frontal cortex". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 10 (5): 212–218. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.03.003. PMC   1513683 . PMID   16584909.
  18. ↑ Diamond, A.; Kirkham, N. Z.; Amso, D. T. (2002). "Conditions under which young children CAN hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response". Developmental Psychology. 38 (3): 352–362. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.3.352. PMID   12005379.
  19. ↑ Simpson, Andrew; Riggs, Kevin J.; Beck, Sarah R.; Gorniak, Shannon L.; Wu, Yvonne; Abbott, David; Diamond, Adele (2012). "Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: How response prepotency is created and overcome". Developmental Science. 15 (1): 62–73. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01105.x. PMC   3405835 . PMID   22251293.
  20. ↑ Ling, Daphne S.; Wong, Charlotte D.; Diamond, Adele (2016). "Do children need reminders on the Day–Night task, or simply some way to prevent them from responding too quickly?". Cognitive Development. 37: 67–72. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.10.003. PMC   4776648 . PMID   26949287.
  21. ↑ Annual Review of Psychology. 77. January 2026.{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. 1 2 aidavv (2022-09-15). "Adele Diamond". Department of Psychiatry. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  23. ↑ "Order of Canada Appointees – December 31, 2025". Governor General of Canada. 10 December 2025. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  24. ↑ "Graces to be submitted to the Regent House at a congregation on 23 March 2024". Cambridge University Reporter. 2024-03-20. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  25. ↑ "Honorary Degree 2020 – Adele Diamond '74". Swarthmore College. 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  26. ↑ "BGU to Recognize Outstanding Scientists and Supporters with Honorary Doctorates". 2015. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  27. ↑ "UBC faculty honoured by Royal Society". UBC News. 2009-09-23. Archived from the original on 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  28. ↑ Hill, M. F. (2009-06-04). "Awards honour women of distinction". The Vancouver Sun: A11.
  29. ↑ "Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  30. ↑ "30 Most Influential Neuroscientists Alive Today" . Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  31. ↑ "IMBES Award Recipients". International Mind, Brain and Education Society. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  32. ↑ "Adele Diamond receives Huttenlocher Award". Centre for Brain Health. 2022-02-08. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  33. ↑ "Global Brainpower Brought to UBC with Federal Research Funding". UBC News. 2004-11-12. Archived from the original on 2022-12-22. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  34. ↑ Ioannidis, John P. A.; Baas, Jeroen; Klavans, Richard; Boyack, Kevin W. (2019). "A standardized citation metrics author database annotated for scientific field". PLOS Biology. 17 (8) e3000384. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384 . PMC   6699798 . PMID   31404057.
  35. ↑ "Comments-UPennC" (PDF). Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  36. ↑ "Comments-UBC" (PDF). Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  37. 1 2 "Invited Talks and Conference Presentations" . Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  38. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2025). "Insights from a career at the border of developmental science and cognitive neuroscience". Annual Review of Developmental Psychology. 7: 1–40. doi: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-010923-114435 .
  39. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2011). "Biological and social influences on cognitive control processes dependent on prefrontal cortex". Gene Expression to Neurobiology and Behavior: Human Brain Development and Developmental Disorders. Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 189. pp. 319–339. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-53884-0.00032-4. ISBN   978-0-444-53884-0.
  40. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (1991). "Neuropsychological insights into the meaning of object concept development". In Carey, Susan; Gelman, Rochel (eds.). The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 67–110.
  41. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2001). "A model system for studying the role of dopamine in prefrontal cortex during early development in humans". In Nelson, Charles A.; Luciana, Monica (eds.). Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 433–472.
  42. 1 2 Zareyan, Saba; Zhang, Hao; Wang, Jing; Song, Wei; Hampson, Elizabeth; Abbott, David; Diamond, Adele (2021). "First demonstration of double dissociation between COMT-Met158 and COMT-Val158 cognitive performance when stressed and when calmer". Cerebral Cortex. 31 (3): 1411–1426. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhaa276. PMC   8599760 . PMID   33124661.
  43. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2013). "Executive functions". Annual Review of Psychology. 64: 135–168. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750. PMC   4084861 . PMID   23020641.
  44. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2005). "ADD (ADHD without hyperactivity), a neurobiologically and behaviorally distinct disorder from ADHD (with hyperactivity)". Development and Psychopathology. 17 (3): 807–825. doi:10.1017/S0954579405050388. PMC   1474811 . PMID   16262993.
  45. 1 2 Diamond, Adele; Lee, Chunyan; Senften, Paul; Lam, Andrea; Abbott, David (2019). "Randomized controlled trial of Tools of the Mind". PLOS ONE. 14 (9) e0222447. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222447 . PMC   6748407 . PMID   31527919.
  46. 1 2 Diamond, Adele; Barnett, W. Steven; Thomas, Jessica; Munro, Sarah (2007). "Preschool program improves cognitive control". Science. 318 (5855): 1387–1388. doi:10.1126/science.1151148. PMC   2174918 . PMID   18048670.
  47. 1 2 Molyneux, Tonje M.; Diamond, Adele (2025). "Integrating social and emotional learning into mathematics education". Behavioral Sciences. 15 (10): 1426. doi: 10.3390/bs15101426 . PMC   12561046 . PMID   41153215.
  48. 1 2 Diamond, Adele (2000). "Close interrelation of motor development and cognitive development and of the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex". Child Development. 71: 44–56. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00117. PMID   10836557.
  49. 1 2 Diamond, Adele; Ling, Daphne S. (2019). "Aerobic-exercise and resistance-training interventions have been among the least effective ways to improve executive functions". Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 37: 100572. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2018.05.001. PMC   6969311 . PMID   29909061.
  50. 1 2 Diamond, Adele; Lee, Katherine (2011). "Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4–12 years old". Science. 333 (6045): 959–964. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..959D. doi:10.1126/science.1204529. PMC   3159917 . PMID   21852486.
  51. 1 2 Simpson, Andrew; Riggs, Kevin J.; Beck, Sarah R.; Gorniak, Shannon L.; Wu, Yvonne; Abbott, David; Diamond, Adele (2012). "Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes". Developmental Science. 15: 62–73. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01105.x. PMID   22251293.
  52. 1 2 Ling, Daphne S.; Wong, Charlotte D.; Diamond, Adele (2016). "Do children need reminders on the Day–Night task, or simply some way to prevent them from responding too quickly?". Cognitive Development. 37: 67–72. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.10.003. PMC   4776648 . PMID   26949287.
  53. 1 2 Davidson, Matthew C.; Amso, Dima; Anderson, Lisa C.; Diamond, Adele (2006). "Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4–13 years". Neuropsychologia. 44 (11): 2037–2078. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.02.006. PMC   1513793 . PMID   16580701.
  54. 1 2 Diamond, Adele; Prevor, Margaret B.; Callender, Gregory; Druin, Deborah P. (1997). "Prefrontal cortex cognitive deficits in children treated early and continuously for PKU". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 62 (4): 1–207. doi:10.2307/1166208. JSTOR   1166208.
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