Research
Neuroimaging of language and developmental disorders
Appointments
- Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
- Associate Professor, Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
- Member, Neuroscience IDP
- Brain Research Institute
Biography
My main research interests focus on the neural representation of language and social cognition. Using neuroimaging techniques (functional MRI, and, more recently, structural MRI and event related potentials, ERP), my research seeks to
(1) delineate how brain maturation and the development of language and social cognition co-occur in the typically developing brain,
(2) qualify the patterns of brain dysfunction in developmental disorders such as autism, childhood onset schizophrenia, and dyslexia, and
(3) examine the neural basis of linguistic and communicative functions in the adult brain since studies on adults provide a normative developmental endpoint for our developmental investigations and can also address issues of brain plasticity.
Publications
- Wagner, L, Ceballos, J, Chiem, E, Dapretto, M. Language network functional connectivity in infancy predicts developmental language trajectories. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2026;80 :101753. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101753. PubMed PMID:42251849 PubMed Central PMC13263748.
- Yosef, B, Burgess, V, Banchik, M, Ceballos, J, Dapretto, M, Green, S et al.. Atypical Predictive Processing Is Associated With Sensory Over-Responsivity in Autism. Autism Res. 2026; :e70283. doi: 10.1002/aur.70283. PubMed PMID:42216930 .
- Jacokes, Z, Beeler-Duden, S, Lawson, S, Eilbott, J, Dapretto, M, Kleinhans, N et al.. Autism Sensory Profiles Predict Stimulus- Evoked Insula Connectivity. medRxiv. 2026; :. doi: 10.64898/2026.04.29.26352062. PubMed PMID:42094158 PubMed Central PMC13142590.
- Chiem, E, Wagner, L, Hernandez, LM, Green, S, Dapretto, M. Salience Network Connectivity Relates to Sleep and Sensory Over-Responsivity in Infants at High and Low Likelihood for Autism. medRxiv. 2026; :. doi: 10.64898/2026.01.13.26344039. PubMed PMID:41646728 PubMed Central PMC12870681.
- Arutiunian, V, Santhosh, M, Neuhaus, E, Borland, H, Bernier, RA, Bookheimer, SY et al.. Altered aperiodic EEG spectral power during speech perception task is associated with verbal communication in youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.64898/2025.12.29.696902. PubMed PMID:41509301 PubMed Central PMC12776406.