Kevin Pelphrey, Ph.D.

Harrison-Wood Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professor, University of Virginia

SFARI Investigator

Kevin Pelphrey is the Harrison-Wood Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professor at the University of Virginia. As a neuroscientist, his research investigates the brain basis of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. The goal of his research is to understand the causes of autism to help get the right treatment to the right individual at the right time.

Pelphrey’s contributions to the field have been recognized by receipt of a NIH Scientist Career Development Award, a John Merck Scholars Award and the American Psychological Association’s Boyd McCandless Award for distinguished early career theoretical contributions to developmental psychology.

Funded Projects

Combining pivotal response treatment with intranasal oxytocin to improve social reciprocity in children with ASD

Awarded: 2018
Award Type: Research

Measuring selectivity of oxytocin to enhance response to Pivotal Response Treatment in individuals with autism

Awarded: 2017
Award Type: Research

Multimodal developmental neurogenetics of adolescents in the Simons Simplex Collection

Awarded: 2012
Award Type: Research

SFARI Funded Publications

ASD modelling in organoids reveals imbalance of excitatory cortical neuron subtypes during early neurogenesis. Jourdon A., Wu F., Mariani J., Capauto D., Norton S., Tomasini L., Amiri A., Suvakov M., Schreiner J., Jang Y., Nguyen C.K., Cummings E.M., Han G., Powell K., Szekely A., McPartland J. C., Pelphrey K., Chawarska K., Ventola P., Abyzov A., Vaccarino F.

A neurogenetic analysis of female autism. Jack A., Sullivan C.A.W., Aylward E., Bookheimer S., Dapretto M., Gaab N., Van Horn J.D., Eilbott J., Jacokes Z., Torgerson C.M., Bernier R., Geschwind D., McPartland J. C., Nelson C., Webb S. J., Pelphrey K., Gupta A., GENDAAR Consortium

Altered neural connectivity in females, but not males with autism: Preliminary evidence for the female protective effect from a quality-controlled diffusion tensor imaging study. Lei J., Lecarie E., Jurayj J., Boland S., Sukhodolsky D., Ventola P., Pelphrey K., Jou R. J.