The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $837,131 Project Grant under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to Yale University to improve the inclusion of individuals with intellectual disability in autism neuroscience research. The 5-year project aims to bridge the knowledge gap on brain function differences among those with autism and intellectual disability by applying innovative technological and clinical approaches. Key products and services to be delivered include:
- Collecting electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking data from 70 children with autism and intellectual disability and 70 children with intellectual disability alone to quantify neural response to faces and visual attention.
- Utilizing novel hardware, software, and behavioral protocols designed by a board certified behavior analyst to facilitate data collection from this underrepresented population.
- Comparing the collected data to a large sample from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials to understand differences indicative of autism with intellectual disability.
- Optimizing the innovative clinical and technological approach to data collection and disseminating it to other researchers to enable further study of this understudied population.
Generated 3/4/25, 8:06 AM