Sara Jane Webb, PhD

Faculty Appointment(s)

Professor

Leadership Role(s)

Faculty Liaison, Office for Teaching, Education and Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Associate Director & Director of the Clinical Translational Core, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

Steering Board, Molecular Medicine & Mechanisms of Disease, University of Washington

sjwebb@uw.edu

206-884-1160

Seattle Children's profile » PBS Lab »

Personal Statement

My research focuses on understanding the development of neural circuits that contributing to and underlie social development. Our lab uses a number of different tools: primarily electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs), but also eye tracking, cardiophysiology (EKG), neuroimaging, and behavioral measures to study how infants, children, and adults perceive, attend and learn about their social environment. Our projects also focus on the development and validation of biomarkers that may be used to understand the course of development and treatment response in children with disruption in social and communication function such as autism spectrum disorder, 16p11.2 deletion syndrome, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Education

Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Illinois, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science, 2001
Clinical Electrophysiology, University of Washington, Center on Human Development & Disability, 2001-2004
PhD, Child Psychology, University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 1996-2001
BA, Psychology, Yale University, 1992-1996

Department Affiliations

Centers/Programs

Other Affiliations

Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Center on Child Health, Behavior, & Development

Recent Publications

Altered aperiodic EEG spectral power during speech perception task is associated with verbal communication in youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
(2025 Dec 29)
bioRxiv
Arutiunian V, Santhosh M, Neuhaus E, Borland H, Bernier RA, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Gupta AR, Jack A, Jeste S, McPartland JC, Naples A, Van Horn JD, Pelphrey KA, Webb SJ
Developmental relationships between the human alpha rhythm and intrinsic neural timescales are dependent on neural hierarchy.
(2026 Jan 1)
J Neurophysiol 135(1): 143-152
Miles JT, Weaver KE, Webb SJ, Ojemann JG
EEG neurosubtyping of infants predicts language trajectories.
(2025 Nov 18)
J Neural Transm (Vienna)
Blanco-Gomez G, Wright N, O'Reilly C, Webb SJ, Elsabbagh M, BASIS Team
The Development of Lateralized Brain Oscillations in Infants: Lessons From Autism.
(2025 Nov)
Dev Psychobiol 67(6): e70101
Blanco-Gomez G, O'Reilly C, Webb SJ, Elsabbagh M, BASIS Team
Number of Alpha Peaks in the Electroencephalogram Is Associated With Clinical Phenotype and Copy Number Variants in Youths With Autism.
(2025 Oct 14)
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
Arutiunian V, Opdahl M, Sullivan CAW, Santhosh M, Neuhaus E, Borland H, Bernier RA, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Jack A, Jeste S, McPartland JC, Naples A, Van Horn JD, Pelphrey KA, Webb SJ, Gupta AR
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