Welcome
Welcome to the Autism Brain Imaging Research Laboratory (ABRL) at the UAB Civitan International Research Center. Our lab is dedicated to the investigation of the neural bases of social, cognitive and affective processes in people with autism. Autism provides an apt venue for investigating these processes because of its enigmatic nature and multidimensional manifestation. We examine the brain activation and synchronization in autism and other disorders, such as schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)using functional MRI. The main research goal is to establish the nature of neural organization and neural functioning in autism and to use this knowledge to devise intervention and training strategies. We study several social cognitive functions, such as language comprehension, Theory-of-Mind (ToM), empathy, agency detection, moral decision making, and the mirror neuron system. In addition to functional MRI, we also use Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to understand the organization of white matter in typical and disabled populations.
