Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Empathy, the ability to understand others' emotions, can occur through perspective taking and experience sharing. Neural systems active when adults empathize include regions underlying perspective taking (e.g. medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC), and experience sharing (e.g. inferior parietal lobule; IPL).
Hormones present in hair provide summative information about endocrine activity while the hair was growing. Therefore, it can be collected from an infant after birth and still provide retrospective information about hormone exposure during prenatal development.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by accumulation of beta amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, which neuropathology suggests follow distinct spatiotemporal patterns.
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a debilitating neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. To facilitate the study of cellular mechanisms in human cells, we established several human stem cell lines.
Children living in neighborhoods where incomes are low and fewer adults have bachelor’s degrees are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder compared to kids from more affluent neighborhoods. The finding is part of a new multi-institution study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), led by Maureen Durkin of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman …
A recent story in the New York Times discusses the trauma that parents experience after the death of a child. In particular, elderly parents who lose a child are vulnerable both emotionally and pragmatically. Waisman Center investigators Marsha Mailick, PhD, and Jan Greenberg, PhD, are quoted in the article and their research is highlighted. You …
Astrogliosis following hypoxia-ischemia (HI) related brain injury plays a role in increased morbidity and mortality in neonates. Recent clinical studies indicate that the severity of brain injury appears to be sex-dependent and that male neonates are more susceptible to the effects of HI resulting in worse neurological outcomes compared to females with comparable brain injuries.
Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 commonly associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far.
Myelin and myelin-producing oligodendrocytes appear to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but this is understudied in humans, particularly in the early stages of disease development.
Objective – Identify and describe parents’ strategies used to support mealtime participation for their child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
