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Mentor: Vivek Buch (Neurosurgery)

“Using Intracranial EEGs to Understand Cognitive Health in Complex Neurodevelopmental Disorders Including Autism”

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, affecting 1 in 36 children in the US. Sleep abnormalities in ASD are well-known and thought to have significant impact on their cognitive processing dysfunction. ASD and epilepsy commonly co-occur, and as a pediatric epilepsy surgeon, Dr. Buch routinely records electrical activity inside brain tissue in children with ASD. Alex will analyze unique and rare electrical activity from important brain regions in ASD children during sleep, and correlate these patterns with cognitive health. The team hypothesizes that electrical imbalance in prefrontal circuits during sleep will predict performance on simple cognitive tasks.