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David Evans

Co-Founder &
Chief Research Officer

Educational Background

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, 1993-1995
  • Ph.D., Boston University, 1994
  • National Research Council Associate – National Institute of Standards and Technology

Teaching Specialties

  • Introduction to Psychology
  • Developmental Psychobiology
  • Abnormal Psychology
  • Developmental Psychopathology
  • Developmental Brain Research
  • Research methods and Statistics

Research Interests

My research is in the area of developmental neuropsychology and developmental social-cognitive neuroscience. My work examines the behaviors that are associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders like autism, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other disorders characterized by repetitive behavior and restricted interests.

Together, with colleagues at Geisinger Health System, we examine the brain structure and function (using EEG and MRI) as it relates to behavior in children with rare and common genetic variants as well as in typically developing children and adolescents. In April 2013, we opened the Geisinger-Bucknell Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute (ADMI) here in Lewisburg. Our research group includes a talented team of Bucknell undergraduate and graduate students, and our Geisinger colleagues are nationally and internationally known geneticists, neurodevelopmental pediatricians, genetic counselors, and neuroradiologists.

Beginning in the summer of 2013, I will be on leave of absence, working on research at ADMI, but I am still interested in working with motivated students. Undergraduate or graduate students or research assistants who are looking for research opportunities and who have interests or experiences in neuroscience, genetics, computer programming and computational sciences, psychophysiology and neuroimaging, especially as they relate to autism spectrum disorders, should contact me at dwevans@bucknell.edu.

Selected Publications

  • Moreno De Luca A*, Evans DW*, Boomer K, Hanson E, Bernier R, Goin-Kochel R, Myers SM, Challman, TD, Moreno De Luca D, Spiro J, Chung W, Martin CL, & Ledbetter DH. (2014). Parental cognitive, behavioral and motor profiles impact the neurodevelopmental profile of individuals with de novo mutations. JAMA Psychiatry. [*Co-first authors]
  • Hanson E, Bernier R, Porche K, Goin-Kochel RP, Snyder LG, Snow-Gallagher A, Wallace AS, Campe K, Zhang Y, Chen Q, Moreno De Luca A, Orr PT, Boomer KB, Evans DW, Martin CL, Ledbetter DH, Spiro J, Chung W. (2014). The cognitive and behavioral phenotype of the 16p11.2 deletion. Biological Psychiatry
  • Slane MM*, Boomer KB, Hare A, Lusk L, King, M, & Evans DW*. (2014). Social cognition, face processing and oxytocin receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms in typically-developing children. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 160-171. 10.1016/j.dcn.2014.04.001. [*Co-first authors]
  • Evans DW, Kleinpeter FL, Slane MM, & Boomer KB. (2014). Adaptive and maladaptive correlates of repetitive behavior and restricted interests in persons with Down syndrome and developmentally-matched typical children: A two-year longitudinal sequential design. PLoS One
  • Evans DW, Lazar SM, Boomer KB & Moore GJ. (2014). Social cognition and brain morphology: Implications for developmental brain dysfunction. Brain Imaging and Behavior. DOI 10.1007/s11682-014-9304-1
  • Evans D.W., Lazar S.M.*, Myers S.M., Moreno De Luca A., Moore G.J. (2014). Social cognition and neural substrates of face perception: Implications for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Behavioral Brain Research. [*Co-first authors]
  • Çevikaslan A, Evans DW, Dedeoğlu C, Kalaça S, Yazgan, Y. (2014). A cross sectional survey of repetitive behavior and restricted interests in a typically-developing Turkish population. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 45, 472-482. doi: 10.1007/s10578-013-0417-3.
  • Moreno-De-Luca, A., Myers, S.M., Challman, T.D., Moreno-De-Luca, D., Evans, D.W. & Ledbetter, D.H. (2013). Developmental brain dysfunction (DBD): Revival and expansion of an old concept based on new genetic evidence. The Lancet Neurology, 12(4),406-414. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(13)70011-5
  • Goldin, G., van ‘t Wout, M., Sloman, S.A., Evans, D.W., Greenberg, B.D., Rasmussen, S.A. (2013). Risk judgment in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Testing a dual-systems account. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 2, 406-411.
  • Evans, D.W., Orr, P.T., Lazar, S., Breton, D., Gerard, J., Batchelder, H., Ledbetter, D., & Janosco, K. (2012). Human preferences for symmetry: Subjective experience, cognitive conflict and cortical brain activity. PLoS ONE 7(6): E38966. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038966.
  • Evans, D.W. & Maliken, A. (2011). Cortical activity and children’s rituals, habits and other repetitive behavior. Behavioural Brain Research 224, 174- 179. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.05.025
  • Evans, D.W., Hersperger, C., & Capaldi, P. (2011). Thought-action fusion in children: Measurement, development and association with anxiety, rituals and other compulsive-like behaviors. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 42 12-23.
  • Pietrefesa, A., & Evans, D.W. (2007). Affective and neuropsychological correlates of children’s compulsive-like behaviors: continuities and discontinuities with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Brain & Cognition, 65, 36-46.
  • Evans, D.W., & Leckman, J.F. (2006). Origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Developmental and evolutionary perspectives. In D.Cicchetti & D.Cohen (Eds) Developmental Psychopathology. (2nd edition) NY: Wiley.
  • Greaves, N., Prince, E., Evans, D.W. & Charman, T. (2006). Repetitive and ritualistic behavior in children with Prader-Willi syndrome and children with autism. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Research.
  • Evans, D.W., Canavera, K., Klinepeter, F.L., Taga, K., & Maccubbin, E. (2005). The fears, phobias and anxieties of children with autism spectrum disorders and Down syndrome: Comparisons with developmentally and chronologically age matched children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 36 3-26.
  • Evans, D.W., Lewis, M., & Iobst, E. (2004). The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in normally developing compulsive behaviors and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Brain & Cognition, 55 220-234.
  • Evans, D.W., Milanak, M, Medeiros, B., Ross, J. (2002). Magical beliefs and rituals in young children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 33, 43-58.
  • Evans, D.W. (2002). Down syndrome. In N.J. Salkind (Ed.) Child Development: The Macmillan Psychology Reference Series, NY, NY.
  • Evans, D.W., Elliott, J.M., & Packard, M.G. (2001). Visual organization and perceptual closure are related to compulsive-like behavior in typically developing children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 47, 323-335.
  • Evans, D.W., Noam, G.G., & Brody, L. (2001). Ego development and self-complexity in a sample of female psychiatric inpatients. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71, 79-86
  • Burack, J.A., Evans, D.W., Klaiman, C., & Iarocci, G. (2001). The mysterious myth of attention deficits in mental retardation and other defect stories: Contemporary issues in the developmental approach to mental retardation. International Review of Mental Retardation Research, 24, 299-320.
  • Evans, D.W. & Gray, F.L. (2000). Compulsive-like behavior in individuals with Down syndrome: Its relation to MA level, adaptive and maladaptive behavior. Child Development, 71, 288-300.
  • Evans, D.W. (2000). Rituals and other syncretic tools: Insights from Werner’s comparative psychology, Journal of Adult Development, 7, 49-61.
  • Evans, D.W. & Seaman, J. (2000). Developmental aspects of psychological defenses: Their relation to self-complexity, self-perception and symptomatology in adolescents. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 30, 237-254.
  • Evans, D.W., Gray, F.L. & Leckman, J.F. (1999). Rituals, fears and phobias in young children: Insights from development, psychopathology and neurobiology. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 29, 261-276.
  • Schultz, R.T., Evans, D.W., & Wolff, M. (1999). Neuropsychological models of childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 8, 513-531.
  • Hodapp, R.M., Evans, D.W., & Gray, F.L. (1999). Intellectual development in children with Down syndrome. In J.A. Rondal, J. Perera, & L. Nadel (Eds), Down syndrome: A review of current knowledge, 124-132. London: Whurr Publishers.
  • Evans, D.W. (1998). Development of the self in mental retardation. In J.A. Burack, R.M. Hodapp & E. Zigler (Eds), Handbook of development and mental retardation, 462-480. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Evans, D.W., Leckman, J.F., Reznick, J.S., Carter, A., Henshaw, D., King, R., & Pauls, D. (1997). Ritual, habit and perfectionism: The prevalence and development of compulsive-like behavior in normal young children. Child Development, 68, 58-68.
  • [Reprinted in M. Hertzig & E. Farber (Eds.) (1998). Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development: Selection of the year’s outstanding contributions to the understanding and treatment of the normal and disturbed child, Philadelphia: Bruner/Mazel.
  • Evans, D.W., King, R., & Leckman, J.F. (1996). Tic disorders. In E. Mash & R.Barkley (Eds), Childhood Psychopathology. NY: Guilford Press.
  • Evans, D.W., Brody, L., & Noam, G.G. (1995). Self-perceptions of adolescents with and without mood disorders: Content and structure. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 36, 1337-1351.
  • Evans, D.W., Hodapp, R.M. & Zigler, E. (1995). Mental and chronological age as predictors of age-appropriate leisure time activities of mildly retarded children. Mental Retardation, 33, 120-127.
  • Evans, D.W. (1994). Self-Complexity and its relation to development, symptomatology and self-perception during adolescence. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 24, 173-182.
  • Evans, D.W., Noam, G.G., Wertlieb, D., Paget, K., & Wolf, M. (1994).Self-perceptions of adolescents with psychopathology: A clinical-developmental perspective. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 64, 293-300.
  • Gleason, J.B., Perlmann, R., Ely, R., & Evans, D.W. (1994). The babytalk register: Parents’ uses of diminutives. In J. Sokolov and C. Snow (Eds.). Handbook of child language analysis with CHILDES. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Dykens, E., Hodapp, R.M. & Evans, D.W. (1994). Trajectories of adaptive behavior in individuals with Down syndrome. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 98, 580-587.
  • Hodapp, R.M., Dykens, E.M., Evans, D.W., & Merighi, J. (1992). Maternal emotional reactions to young children with different types of handicaps. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 13, 118-123.
  • Hodapp, R.M., Evans, D.W., & Ward, B. (1989). Communicative interactions between teachers and children with severe handicaps. Mental Retardation, 27, 388-395.