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Our
lab conducts related multi-disciplinary research programs investigating
the essential characteristics of the cognitive/linguistic phenotypes
that define different neurodevelopmental disorders, and the relationship
between these phenotypic characteristics and brain structure and function.
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Our Lab was originally
located at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where Dr. Tager-Flusberg
taught for over 20 years. The lab moved to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Center, now part of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center,
in 1996, and then in 2001, it came to Boston University School of
Medicine.
Our research initially focused on comparing conceptual, semantic,
and grammatical knowledge in children with autism to children with
mental retardation or Down syndrome using cross-sectional experimental
paradigms and longitudinal studies of naturalistic language data.
In the early 1990s, we began investigating the relationships between
language and theory of mind in children with autism or specific language
impairment (SLI), and by the mid-1990s, we expanded our program to
studies of theory of mind in children with Williams syndrome.
After our move to the Shriver Center, we began a large program project
exploring behavioral and brain imaging studies of language, theory
of mind and other aspects of social information processing in autism
or language impairment. We are continuing our studies of Williams
syndrome, autism, and language impairment at Boston University School
of Medicine. We have also recently expanded our studies in collaboration
with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital
Boston. |
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The broad goals
of our research program include:
- To define the disorders i.e. to shed light on the nature of
the deficits and spared capacities that are unique and specific
to particular syndromes.
- To understand the cognitive architecture of neurodevelopmental
disorders in illuminating theoretical issues of normal development
(e.g., dissociation between grammar and functional usage of language
in autism; a componential model of theory of mind).
- To identify cognitive phenotypic markers or subtypes that will
facilitate research on the underlying genetics of certain developmental
disorders (especially for autism and SLI, which are both complex
genetic disorders) and neuropathology of the syndromes.
- To explore the relationship between cognitive function and
neurobiological substrates in these disorders, using structural
and functional MRI, and other new technologies, including DTI,
TMS and MEG.
- To investigate the underlying causes, developmental course,
and treatment of the social and affective symptoms that define
the syndrome of autism.
- To identify early risk signs for autism and specific language
impairment in infant studies.
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