WHO:	Alex Martin , National Institutes of Health
TOPIC:	Towards a clinically-relevant (?) cognitive neuroscience of Autism Spectrum Disorders
ABSTRACT:	During the past two decades functional brain imaging studies have greatly increased our understanding of the neural circuitry underpinning many aspects of cognition and mood. Recently, these techniques have been used to study the disordered mind by recording neural activity during patient task performance. I will argue that while these studies advance our knowledge of brain-behavior relationships - and thus advance the cognitive neuroscience enterprise - their clinical applicability is severely limited. This is because of a lack of non-behavioral diagnostic criteria (i.e., disease-relevant biomarkers) for determining group membership. The possibility that functional brain imaging (fMRI, MEG) can provide appropriate biomarkers for identifying phenotypes in the Autism Spectrum Disorders will be explored.
WHEN:	11/11/2009 12:00:00 PM
WHERE:	Meliora 269

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