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| Brain Connectivity and Cognition in Autism |
| Monday, February 5, 2018 |
| 1:30 PM–2:20 PM |
| Regency Ballroom |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| CE Instructor: Lucina Uddin, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Jonathan J. Tarbox (University of Southern California; FirstSteps for Kids) |
| LUCINA UDDIN (University of Miami) |
 After receiving a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the psychology department at UCLA in 2006, Dr. Uddin completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Child Study Center at New York University. For several years she worked as a faculty member in Psychiatry & Behavioral Science at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She joined the psychology department at the University of Miami in 2014. Within a cognitive neuroscience framework, Dr. Uddin’s research combines functional connectivity analyses of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and structural connectivity analyses of diffusion tensor imaging data to examine the organization of large-scale brain networks supporting social cognition and executive functions. Her current projects focus on understanding dynamic network interactions underlying cognitive inflexibility in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Dr. Uddin’s work has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, JAMA Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, PNAS, and Nature Reviews Neuroscience. |
| Abstract: Brain structural and functional development underlies the maturation of increasingly sophisticated cognitive abilities. High-level social and cognitive processes rely on the integrity of, and dynamic interactions between, several core brain networks. Our research program characterizes the development of brain networks in autism and examines relationships with social cognitive and repetitive behaviors. We find that brain connectivity changes across the lifespan in autism, and suggest ways in which age-dependent brain network properties can be understood to contribute to the emergence of specific behaviors. |
| Target Audience: Board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, graduate students. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: (1) understand the current status of the field of neuroimaging of autism; (2) name specific brain regions and networks that are implicated in symptoms of autism; (3) understand questions and caveats/limitations of current approaches. |
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