SPD Scientific Work Group Participants

Tavassoli, Teresa, PhD

Title: Postdoctoral Fellow; Seaver Autism Center
Institution: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Mailing Address: 1428 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029
teresa.tavassoli@gmail.com

Teresa Tavassoli completed her psychology training in Germany at the University of Constance before finishing her PhD at the University of Cambridge with Simon Baron-Cohen in the UK. Since 2012 she has worked at the Seaver Autism Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York.

Her research is dedicated to deepening the understanding of sensory reactivity in children and adults with autism and its variation across the entire population. Her goal is first to identify the most robust and objective ways to measure sensory reactivity, a new DSM-5 criterion, in children and adults with ASD, which can be used to guide diagnosis, guide sensory-based treatments and test treatment effects. Her second goal is to elucidate underlying neural and genetic mechanisms of abnormal sensory reactivity in children with and without ASD.

Dr. Tavassoli employs a multi-method approach, relying on caregiver reports, sensory assessments, detection thresholds, as well as psychophysiology (e.g., electrodermal activity and heart rate), imaging (e.g., fMRI and MRS), and genetic analysis. This research will not only help to identify robust measures and elucidate underlying mechanism of abnormal sensory reactivity, it will also help to better understand the sensory world of children with and without ASD.