Infant Brain Development

Hugo Lagercrantz, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed professor of pediatrics at the Karolinska Institute 1989. He was director of the Neonatal Programme at the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital until 2004. Dr. Lagercrantz is currently editor-in-chief for Acta Paediatrica . He has been a member of the Nobel Prize Assembly for physiology or medicine. Dr. Lagercrantz found that the fetus mobilizes very high levels of catecholamines during normal birth and coined the expression "The stress of being born" ( Scientific American 1986). This stress seems to be of vital importance for neonatal adaptation. In addition, Dr. Lagercrantz studied apnea of prematurity and the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Most recently, his research has focused on how consciousness emerges and what happens when there is an abnormal development of the brain. He has also been involved in the finding of a spontaneous resting activity in the newborn brain - showing that it is not "a blank slate". Dr. Lagercrantz is the main editor of the book, Newborn Brain: Neuroscience and Clinical Applications (Cambridge University Press 2002 and 2010) and sole author of the first edition of Infant Brain Development (Springer, 2016). He is now an emeritus professor.

Nelly Padilla, M.D., holds two doctorates in Pediatrics and Neuroscience. She is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and an Affiliated Researcher at Karolinska Institutet. Her work bridges clinical pediatrics and neonatal neuroscience, examining how extreme prematurity shapes brain development and long-term outcomes. Using longitudinal MRI and advanced computational analyses, she has provided new insights suggesting that in late childhood the extremely preterm brain may remain relatively sensorimotor-weighted, with weaker maturation of networks supporting complex thinking and self-control. In parallel to her academic work, she maintains a clinical practice in pediatrics and neonatology. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams, including engineers and physicists, to translate advanced neuroimaging into clinically meaningful insights. Dr. Padilla is an Adjunct Editor of Acta Paediatrica and has co-authored peer-reviewed work with Hugo Lagercrantz on the emergence of consciousness in early life.