Debora Suppiger completed her studies in psychology with a focus on neuropsychology at the University of Bern. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant in two research groups focusing on memory and sleep at the University of Bern and at the University Clinic for Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. She also gained clinical experience as a neuropsychologist at the Lucerne Hospital. She joined the NGN Research Center to pursue her PhD and is enrolled in the international Neuroscience Program of the Life Science Graduate School Zurich. At the NGN Research Center, she is primarily working on her own project in which she measures mothers and their infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. In addition, she supervises numerous students in their master's theses and internships, and teaches at the University of Zurich.

Research interests

Her research focuses on the cognitive and neurological development of infants. She is primarily interested in the phenomenon of neuronal synchrony. To this end, she simultaneously measures the brain activity of mothers and their infants and thus tries to learn more about the biological foundations of the mother-child relationship. She is particularly interested in the connection with breastfeeding behavior and maternal affect. Another research focus is on factors influencing the duration of breastfeeding and breastfeeding behavior. In addition, she is interested in how breast milk affects activation and cognitive performance, especially early memory functions in infancy.

Current projects

• LEARN
• Mother-Infant Neural Synchrony
• Effects of breast milk on cognitive development in infancy (2 projects)
• Factors influencing longer breastfeeding duration and maternal affect

Associated projects

• Reliability and Validity of the German Version of the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS-G) and relations to breastfeeding duration and feeding method
• Infant regulation during the pandemic: Associations with maternal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, well-being, and socio-emotional investment