Michael A. Rosario, PhD

Environmental & Cognitive Neuroscientist · Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Southern California

Conceptual diagram: social and physical environmental factors act on the brain across the lifespan, from infancy through older adulthood, shaping whether memory declines or is preserved — How is memory and its underlying neurobiology affected across the lifespan?

I study how the environments people live in, from ambient air pollution to neighborhood social and physical conditions, shape brain structure, memory systems, and cognitive health across the lifespan.

Working in large developmental and aging cohorts, including the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I combine neuroimaging, environmental exposure science, and advanced statistical modeling to identify environmental drivers of neurocognitive risk and resilience from childhood through older adulthood.

Research Publications

Recent

Mentorship
Alan Wen, a junior in neuroscience at USC and a trainee in the Herting Lab, won first place for Poster of Scientific Merit at the Population and Public Health Sciences Research Symposium on October 8, 2026, for his work on early life adversity and behavioral motivation systems in 9- to 11-year-olds.
Editorial
Serving as Guest Editor for the Scientific Reports collection on Climate, Pollution, and the Neurobiology of Mental Health.
Publication
“Enriched neighborhood environments relate to episodic memory through prefrontal rather than medial temporal pathways during late childhood and early adolescence” is out in Brain and Environment. Read it →
Preprint
New preprint with Amanda Del Giacco on air pollution, early adversity, and the amygdala as environmental correlates of psychopathology in preadolescents. Read it →
Publication
“Ambient pollution components and sources are associated with hippocampal architecture and memory in pre-adolescents” is out in BMC Medicine. Read it →
Appointment
Joined the NIA T32 in Multidisciplinary Research Training in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.