Parent-Child Brain Synchrony in Autism Spectrum Disorders

PI:
Tanya Evans, tme4j@virginia.edu, Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, Curry School

Description:
Atypical social engagement is a core feature of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and is a behavioral marker used to diagnose and assess the severity of symptoms. Traditional neuroimaging studies of social engagement in ASD considers individuals in isolation. To more effectively study social engagement, this research will integrate multiple streams of neural data from parent-child pairs interacting with each other. The goal of this research to develop metrics that relate brain-synchrony to social engagement in autistic children, with a long-term goal of determining whether brain synchrony can serve as a physiological cue to enhance social engagement in individuals with ASD.