Elif Duman

Ph.D., Stony Brook University, 2012

Dr. Duman’s research focuses on the role of stress-related gene-environment interactions on neural, endocrine, epigenetic and behavioral outcomes in cohorts from infancy to adulthood. In particular, she investigates the lifelong impact of early life stressors, such as childhood maltreatment, poverty, and prenatal stress. In order to investigate this impact over time, she has started the BABIP birth cohort in Istanbul, Turkey that examines the role of maternal early life and perinatal stress on maternal and infant physiological, behavioral and health outcomes. Through BABIP and collaborations with similar cohorts in Europe and US, she is investigating the intergenerational transmission of early life adversity. In another line of research, she investigates individual differences in risk-taking behavior across different domains. In collaboration with economists, she collected data from 2000 undergraduates during the COVID- 19 pandemic to investigate how psychosocial, mental health and pandemic-related factors influence risk-taking behavior measured across multiple modalities.

PSYC 2430 Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC 2450 Behavioral Neuroscience
PSYC 3434 Prenatal Programming
PSYC 3495 Gene-Environment Interactions & Epigenetics

- Huang, Q., Shire, D., Hollis, F., Abuaish, S., Picard, M., Monk, C., Duman, E. A., & Trumpff,
C. (2025). Associations between prenatal distress, mitochondrial health, and gestational age:
Findings from two pregnancy studies in the USA and Turkey. Mitochondrion, 84: 102057.

- Caparros-Gonzalez, R. A., Ayers, S., Duman, E. A., Calleja, N., Calleja-Agius, J., Carone, N.,
… Garthus-Niegel, S. (2025). Maternal and infant (mental) health and development: our
TREASURE – Introducing an EU COST Action on the impact of maternal perinatal
stress. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 43(3), 553–556.

- Koning, S. M., Kessler, C. L., Canli, T., Duman, E. A., Adam, E. K., Zinbarg, R., Craske, M.
G., Stephens, J., & Vrshek-Schallhorn, S. (2024). Accumulation, timing, and developmental
context of early-life adversity are associated with SLC6A4 methylation in emerging adults:
Results from a prospective cohort study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 170, 107181.

- Corapci, F., Eroglu-Ada, F.*, Kalkan, R. B., & Duman, E. A. (2023). Classroom chaos and
program quality in early child care and education programs: A study from Turkey. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 65 (4), 32-41.

- Entringer, S., Scholaske, L., Kurt, M., Duman, E. A., Adam, E. K., Razum, O., & Spallek, J.
(2022). Diurnal cortisol variation during pregnancy in Turkish origin and non-migrant women in
a German birth cohort study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 111020.

- Spallek, J., Scholaske, L., Duman, E. A., Razum, O., & Entringer, S. (2021). Association of
maternal migrant background with inflammation during pregnancy – Results of a birth cohort
study in Germany. Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 96, 271-278.

- Duman, E. A., Atesyakar, N., & Ecevitoglu, A. (2020). Multilevel impact of prenatal risk and
protective factors on stress biology and infant development: Study protocol of BABIP
prospective birth cohort from Turkey. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity Health, 1C 100005.