Autism Spectrum Disorder

Brain Networks in Autism
Functional brain imaging of neurotypical individuals and clinical populations has primarily focused on localization of function, revealing activation in specific brain regions during performance of cognitive tasks. More recently, interest has shifted towards developing a deeper understanding of intrinsic brain architecture that influences cognitive and affective information processing. We use novel brain network approaches to understand aberrant structural and functional brain connectivity underlying atypical behavior and cognition in children with autism. We examine large-scale brain networks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to understand possible aberrant cortical connectivity and compromised dynamic interactions within and between brain networks in children with autism.

Math Abilities in Autism
Many individuals with autism have achieved considerable success in mathematics, science, and engineering. Nevertheless, very little is currently known about how children and adults with autism process mathematical information. The goal of this research project is to better understand the behavioral and neural bases of mathematical processing in children with High Functioning Autism (HFA). We hope that our study will provide new information about strengths and weaknesses in cognitive abilities in children with autism.

Social Perception and Cognition in Autism
This study examines how children with autism perceive and attend to socially relevant stimuli. We are also interested in whether children with and without autism differ in performance on social judgment tasks, the brain regions recruited to complete these tasks, and the structure of these brain regions and how they are connected. Our goal is to better understand the typical and atypical development of specific neurocognitive networks in children with autism.

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