SCANgroup | Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neurodevelopment

Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neurodevelopment (SCANgroup)

We are broadly interested in understanding brain connections and neural mechanisms that give rise to our complex social behaviors, through the prism of development.

We use neuropsychological assessment, along with functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and other brain imaging methods (EEG, ERPs) to understand neural bases of typical and atypical development. See Research section for more details.

The SCANgroup is part of the Brain Development Imaging Laboratories (BDIL), a collaborative research cluster investigating brain development.

We are also affiliated with the SDSU Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders, SDSU Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, and SDSU Department of Psychology and its Master’s Program.

SCANgroup in spotlight

Read the SDSU Research Foundation article about SCANgroup

SDSU Toddler MRI Project:

Our current efforts focus on identifying early brain markers for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which remain unknown today. The SDSU Toddler MRI Project’s goal is to understand how the brain develops in the first years of life in toddlers and preschoolers with ASD in comparison to typically developing children. We are examining how the brain is organized at the age when first autism symptoms become apparent (around 18-24 months) and how it changes throughout the early childhood, by the time children reach age 4-5 years.

This project is conducted in collaboration with colleagues at SDSU, UCSD, and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, and is funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health. To learn more about this project, read here.

Latest @ SCANgroup:

July 2020: Our paper on network connectivity is featured in Spectrum

Our paper on sensory network connectivity in young children with ASD is covered in Spectrum.

January 2019: Dr. Fishman @ Hebrew University Center for Autism in Israel

Dr. Fishman is giving a talk at the Hebrew University Autism Center in Israel.

November 2018: Decoding Social Cues

Our research and recent findings are profiled in this KPBS story by Megan Burks.

November 2018: Our Center for Autism is getting publicity

Read here on our work and recent efforts at the SDSU Center for Autism: Autism Center answers growing need.

October 2018: Listen to ASF podcast reviewing our recent paper

SCANgroup’s recent findings on atypical amygdala connectivity in children with ASDs is reviewed by the Autism Science Foundation (ASF) weekly Science Podcast.

April 2018: SCANgroup receives a new award!

SCANgroup receives a new award to examine the effects of the Improvisational Theater intervention on social skills in teens with ASDs. Under this Community-University partnership award, we will be teaming up with Richie Ploesch and the Unscripted Learning Connections Program to evaluate the effects of their fun improv theater program on anxiety and overall well-being in teenagers with ASDs.

January 2018: Dr. Fishman speaks @ Negev Autism Center in Israel

Dr. Fishman is giving a talk at the Negev Autism Center in Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

September 2017: The SDSU Center for Autism

The SDSU Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders has been founded! Directed by Dr. Fishman, the Center will provide diagnostic and evaluation services to the individuals with autism spectrum disorders across the lifespan. For more on the Center’s mission, read here.

October 2016: SCANgroup receives collaborative pilot grant

Dr. Fishman and her colleagues Drs. Alyson Abel and Tracy Love from the SDSU School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences receive a Collaborative Pilot Grant award from the SDSU Center for Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience (CCN), to support their collaboration on neural mechanisms of Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Latest Student News:

July 2020: Good luck in grad school in Seattle!

Our best wishes to Katherine who is moving to Seattle to attend a grad program in Applied Psychology at UW!

May 2020: SDSU Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Congrats to Elisa Mendez, an undergraduate student in the lab, for acceptance into the SDSU Summer Undergraduate Research Program! During this entirely virtual program (due to the Covid pandemic), Elisa will utilize the Toddler Project data to examine whether there are links between socioeconomic variables and anxiety levels in young children with autism.

May 2020: Another Autism Speaks fellowship!

Congratulations to Bosi Chen, a doctoral student in our lab, who was awarded a prestigious Autism Speaks / Royal Arch Masons Predoctoral Fellowship, to examine the neural correlates of auditory processing and sound sensitivity in young children with autism.

September 2019: Lindsay Olson is awarded Autism Speaks fellowship

Congratulations to Lindsay Olson for being awarded the prestigious Autism Speaks predoctoral fellowship to study links between socioeconomic status and language development and its neural correlates, using advanced MRI methods, in young children with autism.

May 2019: SCANgroup at INSAR 2019

Check out our presentations at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) meeting in Montreal: from brain networks in toddlers with autism, to the relations between SES and early language skills in ASD, and effects of improvisational theater intervention on teens’ social skills.