On 26 March, Ami Klin presented data from two studies measuring social adaptive behaviors — highly conserved and early-emerging mechanisms of socialization — in infants and toddlers.
His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above.
About the Lecture
Advances in molecular genetics have implicated a number of genetic variants in autism, yet understanding of how these variants contribute to the disorder is limited. Autism is among the most reliably diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders, but symptoms used to define autism are likely to be outcomes of disruptions much earlier in development. Klin’s findings might allow researchers to detect underlying characteristics associated with autism before the current average age of diagnosis.
About the Speaker
Ami Klin is Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Professor and director of the division of autism and developmental disabilities at Emory University School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of London and completed clinical and research work at Yale University’s Child Study Center. Until 2010, he directed the autism program at the Yale Child Study Center, and was Harris Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry there.
Klin’s primary research focuses on the social mind and brain and on the developmental aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. He is the author of more than 180 publications in the field of autism and related conditions and the co-editor of Asperger Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders in Infants and Toddlers, the third edition of the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders and several special issues of professional journals focused on autism.
