Current Studies

Project I. Development of Categorization & Facial Knowledge in Low & High Functioning Autism

Dr. Strauss – Facial and infant study

Autism Research at the Infant and Toddler Development Center

Researchers at the Infant and Toddler Development Center have been studying the effects of autism in older children and adults since 2002 and are supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and Autism Speaks. With the recent naming of the University of Pittsburgh as one of six national Autism Centers of Excellence, this research will continue and will also be extended to the study of both toddlers and young infants.

Our research is concerned with how autism impacts the ability of individuals to process cognitive information. While autism is often described as a disorder that affects the ability of individuals to socially interact with others, it also has a profound impact on the way individuals process all types of information. More specifically, we are studying how autism impacts the way individuals learn about the world including their knowledge of both categories and faces.

At the turn of the century, the well known psychologist William James described the world of the infant "as one great, buzzing, blooming, confusion" (James, 1890). He meant to emphasize how much information infants must come to understand about the world- how cats, dogs and other categories are different from each other; what types of information in a face are important for recognizing people; and what is the meaning of facial expressions such as happy, sad, or angry.

Our work, along with others, has shown that much of this information is automatically learned by infants and young children. This, however, may not be true of individuals with autism. Our research suggests that individuals with autism have difficulties learning generalized information such as categories and may live in a world of details that puts a large demand on their memories. We are currently conducting research with three populations:

Infants at Risk for Autism: Evidence suggests that autism begins within the first year of life. In order to both diagnose the disorder within the first year of life, and to understand its impact on development, we are studying babies who are at-risk for having the disorder because they have an older brother or sister already diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Participants in this study are seen starting at 6 months of age for studies that merely require them to look at pictures and movies as we record how they observe the stimuli.

Newly Diagnosed 24 to 36 month old children: Our nonverbal methods also allow us to study very young non verbal children who have just been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Again, these studies merely require the children to observe pictures and movies as we record how they look at the stimuli.

Older Children and Adults with Autism: These studies are focused on individuals older than 5 years of age through adulthood who have been diagnosed with autism and who also have I.Q. scores above 80. For these studies, participants use a keyboard to respond to a series of simple questions regarding various pictures they see on a computer monitor.

If you would like more information about these studies or are interested in participating in them please call us at 1-866-647-3436 or send an email to autismrecruiter@upmc.edu.