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RESEARCH PROGRAM:
Cognitive and social processes are complex,
non-unitary brain processes that are not always separable
from each other. Impairment in social cognition and social
understanding has a significant impact on social, cognitive
and communicative functioning. My primary research interest
is to explore the neural substrates of social cognition and
the impact of social cognition on language, communication
and other cognitive functions. Perhaps the most appropriate
arena for studying social cognition is autism, an enigmatic
disorder marked by an amalgam of cognitive and social
impairments. In brief, I use functional and structural MRI
to study the neural architecture of autism. To learn
more regarding my research, please go to
http://www.psy.uab.edu/abrl/home.html.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS:
Kana, R.K., Keller,
T.A., Minshew, N .J., & Just, M.A. (2007). Inhibitory Control
in High
Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and
Underconnectivity in Inhibition
Networks. Biological Psychiatry, 62, 198-206.
Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Minshew, N.J., &
Just, M.A. (2006).
Sentence comprehension in autism: thinking in pictures with
decreased functional
connectivity. Brain, 129(9), 2484-93.
Keller, T.A., Kana, R.K., & Just, M.A. (2007). A
developmental study of the structural
integrity of white matter in autism. Neuroreport, 18(1),
23-27.
Cherkassky, V.L., Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., & Just, M.A.
(2006). Functional connectivity
in a baseline resting-state network in autism. Neuroreport,
17(16), 1687-90.
Koshino, H., Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Cherkassky, V.L.,
Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A.
(2007). fMRI Investigation of Working Memory for Faces
in Autism: Visual Coding
and Underconnectivity with Frontal Areas. Cerebral Cortex.
Just, M.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Keller, T.A., Kana, R.K., &
Minshew, N.J. (2007). Functional
and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism:
evidence from an fMRI study of an
executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry.
Cerebral Cortex, 17(4), 951-
61.
Mason, R.A., Williams,
D.L., Kana, R.K., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (In press).
Theory of
Mind disruption and recruitment of the right hemisphere
during narrative comprehension in
autism. Neuropsychologia.
TEACHING/ RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Social
Neuroscience, Brain and Language, Theory of Mind,
Neuroimaging, Autism
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