Research

About Our Research

Our lab uses a variety of techniques, such as behavioral testing (e.g., performing tasks in a quiet room), eye tracking (e.g., measuring where your child is looking; figure to the right), and brain imaging (e.g., recording the electrical activity produced by the brain using sensors placed on the head).

Using these tools, we study areas where individuals with autism excel, such as visual search. In a visual search task, participants have to find a target (a circle in the example to the right) that is hidden among an array of “distractors.” Individuals with autism are faster than their peers without autism at finding the target.

Our research explores how individuals with autism achieve their superior performance, with the goal of using this knowledge to enhance our understanding what is different about the brain in autism and how we may be able to utilize these abilities to enhance the lives of individuals with autism and their families.