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Our recent studies have produced exciting new findings about autism, focusing on the following topics:
- Understanding the language and communication deficits that are
universal and define the disorder - problems in pragmatics (use
of language)
- Exploring individual differences in language impairment in autism
- Investigating 'theory of mind' - the ability to attribute mental
states such as desire or belief to other people and its close
relationship to language in children with autism.
- Perceiving and remembering faces
- Exploring the organization of the language areas of the brain in people with autism using structural brain imaging studies
- Learning more about language and visual processing through functional brain imaging studies
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| Brain Imaging
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| In these studies, funded by the National Institute of Deafness and
Communication Disorders, the National Institute of Mental Health,
and Autism Speaks, we are investigating the ways the brain structures
of children and young adults with autism compare to those of typically
developing people. Through the use of functional MRI techniques, we
are also studying the brain activation patterns of people with autism
in response to faces and language stimuli. |
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| Autism Research Center of Excellence |
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| One of six centers nationwide in the National Institute of Mental
Health's Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART)
program, our Autism Research Center of Excellence hosts collaborative
efforts with Dartmouth College, Tufts University/New England Medical
Center, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a series of studies
investigating a drug treatment intervention for autism, non-invasive
brain imaging techniques, the neuroanatomy of autism, and family adjustment
to raising a toddler diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. |
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