Kathryn Manning

Administrative Contact: Diana Arthurs diana.arthurs@sickkids.ca

At a Glance

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquisition and analyses, including data-driven approaches that link brain cortical architecture, white matter microstructure, and functional network connectivity
• Neuroimaging across healthy and compromised early development, from infancy through adolescence
• Understanding how brain development supports behaviour and mental health, and what factors play a role in those relationships
• Harnessing the power of plasticity: quantifying how the brain can change after timely and targeted interventions

Short Bio

Dr. Manning is a Scientist in the Neurosciences & Mental Health and Translational Medicine programs at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. With a background in applied mathematics and physics, she obtained her MSc and PhD in the Department of Medical Biophysics at Western University with Dr. Ravi Menon. Through her graduate work she demonstrated neuroplastic reorganization in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy treated with constraint-induced movement therapy and developed elegant data-driven analyses techniques to understand the acute and persistent brain changes associated with concussion. She completed her postdoctoral work with Dr. Catherine Lebel at the Alberta Children’s Hospital scanning infants and young children to understand early brain development patterns, focused on how they are shaped by prenatal maternal distress and how they support different outcomes. She demonstrated for the first time how social support can not only support better mental health for pregnant individuals - it can mediate the impact on the infant functional connectome. In her recent work, she has taken advantage of open, big-data to understand how the complex balance of risk and resiliency factors can impact individual developmental trajectories, uncovering specific multidimensional brain patterns that predict mental health outcomes. Dr. Manning is currently exploring how an intervention for postnatal depression can protect offspring, and she is excited to explore other early interventions and inform how they can capitalize upon the plastic potential of the young brain.

Recent Publications

1. Manning KY, Llera A, Lebel C. “Reliable multimodal brain signatures predict mental health outcomes in children.” Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 2025 Mar. In press. doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.03.003.
2. Manning KY, Long X, Watts D, Tomfohr-Madsen L, Giesbrecht G, Lebel C. “Prenatal maternal distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and associations with infant brain connectivity.” Biological Psychiatry. 2022 Nov; 92 (9): 701-708. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.05.011
3. Manning KY, Jaffer A, Lebel C. “Windows of opportunity: how age and sex shape the influence of prenatal depression on the child brain.” Biological Psychiatry. 2025 Feb; 97(3): 227-247. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.07.022
4. Perdue MV, Geeraert BL, Manning KY, Dewey D, Lebel C. “Phonological decoding ability is associated with fiber density of left arcuate fasciculus longitudinally across reading development.” Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2025 Apr; 72. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn. 2025.101537
5. Manning KY, Brooks JS, Dickey JP, Harriss AH, Fischer L, Jevremovic T, Blackney K, Barreira C, Brown A, Bartha R, Doherty T, Fraser D, Holmes J, Dekaban GA, Menon RS.” Longitudinal changes of brain microstructure and function in non-concussed female varsity rugby players” Neurology. 2020 July; 95 (4). doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009821