On 6 November 2013, Amanda Woodward discussed the origins of children’s social understanding and how this fundamental aspect of cognition has profound implications for early childhood development. The talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Kevin Pelphrey provided post-lecture commentary on how our growing understanding of the origins of children’s social...
On 26 February, David Amaral presented evidence supporting the concept that there are different types of altered brain development among children with autism.His talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the lecture: Autism clearly involves altered function of the central...
On 26 March, Ami Klin presented data from two studies measuring social adaptive behaviors — highly conserved and early-emerging mechanisms of socialization — in infants and toddlers.His talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the lecture: Advances in molecular...
On 23 April, Gail Mandel presented the complex pathology of Rett syndrome and discussed whether this autism-related disorder would be amenable to gene replacement strategies. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the Lecture A central goal...
On 23 September, Nancy Kanwisher discussed the functional architecture of the social brain as an avenue for considering which functions are affected and which are preserved in autism.Her talk was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. About the lecture: Humans are a highly social species, allocating numerous brain regions to distinct aspects...
On 29 October 2014, Dan Littman described how intestinal bacteria affect immune system cell functioning, potentially contributing to systemic inflammation and autism. His talk was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. About the lecture: Our immune system is heavily influenced by microbiota — the microbes that reside within us. In the intestine,...
On 3 December 2014, Karen E. Adolph discussed how infants learn to generate and control their movements by adapting to environmental and social factors.Her talk, which covered ways in which a variety of external factors affect how infants learn to move, was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Adolph explained how infants...
On 25 March 2015, Maureen Durkin discussed trends in the prevalence of autism and explored some of the reasons underlying the recent rise in autism cases. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Once considered an extremely rare childhood mental disorder, autism is now recognized as...
On 30 September 2015, Takao Hensch discussed the biological bases of critical periods in brain development. Mechanisms that open and close windows of plasticity (E/I balance and molecular brakes, respectively) have been implicated in autism, suggesting mistimed maturational processes that can be strategically rescued at the circuit level. His talk was part of the...
All Society for Neuroscience (SfN) attendees are welcome to join SFARI Investigators and scientific staff for an evening of socializing and networking, including a brief information session on SFARI funding programs and scientific resources for the autism research community. We welcome newcomers to autism research as well as those already working to uncover the...
