Currently, the CPEA Network includes the following sites:
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Boston University
Led by: Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Social-communicative abilities in autism;
- Language delays and problems in autism; and
- Brain pathology underlying social-communicative and language impairments in autism,
using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Contact: Laboratory of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine
715 Albany Street, L-814, Boston, MA 02118-2526
617-414-1312 or htagerf@bu.edu
University of California, Davis
Led by: Sally Rogers, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Imitation and motor function in autism;
- Measurement, predictors, course, causes, and external validity of regression in autism; and
- A longitudinal study of the developmental course of autism.
Contact: U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute
2825 50th Street, Sacramento, CA 95817
1-888-883-0961 or 916-703-0268 or sjrogers@ucdavis.edu
University of California, Los Angeles
Led by: Marian Sigman, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- How social, communication, and language deficits in autism start and develop;
- Follow-up and extension of certain treatments for autism;
- Phenotype and genotype in inversion and duplication of chromosome 15; and
- Neuroimaging and deficits in social communication in autism.
Contact: UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 92868
info@autism.ucla.edu or http://www.autism.ucla.edu or 310-825-0180
University of Pittsburgh
Led by: Nancy Minshew, M.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Organizing information into concepts in persons with high-functioning autism and
Asperger syndrome; - Visual perception and visual processing in persons with high-functioning autism and
Asperger syndrome; - Sensory, motor, and executive problems in persons with high-functioning autism and
Asperger syndrome; and - Functional brain imaging of language and cognition in persons with high-functioning
autism and Asperger syndrome
This research is done in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Contact: University of Pittsburgh Autism Research Program
Webster Hall, Suite 300, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
1-866-647-3436 or autismrecruiter@msx.upmc.edu or http://www.pitt.edu/~nminshew
University of Rochester Medical Center
Led by: Patricia Rodier, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Animal models and mechanisms of injury in autism;
- Behaviors that distinguish autism from other disorders; and
- Mutations in genes involved in early development and influences on gene function.
This research is done in conjunction with the University of Rochester Medical Center's Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), Cornell Medical College, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Contact: University of Rochester Medical Center
610 Elmwood Avenue, Box 603, Rochester, NY, 14642
716-275-2582 or Patricia_Rodier@mrmc.rochester.edu
University of Utah
Led by: William McMahon, M.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Genetics and genetic susceptibility of autism;
- Brain development; and
- Serotonin function and immune system functioning in autism.
Contact: Utah Autism Research Project
421 Wakara Way, Suite 143, Salt Lake City, UT 84108
http://utahautismresearchprogram.genetics.utah.edu/ or 801-585-9098
University of Washington
Led by: Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- The relationships between the brain and behavior in autism;
- Language problems characteristic of autism;
- Early diagnosis of autism and resulting outcomes;
- Neuroimaging studies of autism; and
- The genetics of autism.
Contact: Autism Research Program Project
Autism Center at the Center for Human Development and Disability
Box 357920, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
http://depts.washington.edu/uwautism/research/participation.html
or 1-800-994-9701 or cbrock@u.washington.edu
Yale University
Led by: Fred Volkmar, M.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Genetics of persons with autism;
- The genetics of persons with autism and Asperger syndrome, their families, and family
members with related disorders; - Changes to the nervous system in autism;
- Behavior problems, epilepsy, and puberty in adolescents with autism; and
- Regression studies that seek to define the phenomena, predict outcomes, and evaluate
medical factors that may play a role, such as vaccines, seizures, and prenatal conditions.
This research is done in conjunction with the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University.
Contact: Yale Child Study Center
230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT 06520-7900
http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/ or 203-785-5930
Affiliated Programs
The Network also includes two sites that are not currently CPEAs, but are affiliated with the Network.
University of California, Irvine
Led by: Anne Spence, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Genes involved in autism; and
- Brain structure and regression in autism.
Contact: Department of Pediatrics, 4482
U.C. Irvine Medical Center
101 City drive, Orange, CA 92868
714-456-8848 or maspence@uci.edu
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Led by: Katherine Loveland, Ph.D.
This site conducts studies of:
- Development of communication and social behavior and its relationship to brain function
in autism; - Abnormalities in brain structure related to autism; and
- Animal studies of brain structure, injury, and behavior.
Contact: The Autism Research Laboratory, Center for Human Development Research
University of Texas Mental Sciences Institute, 1300 Moursund Street, Houston, Texas, 77030
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/chdr/ or 713-500-2580
The CPEA Data Coordinating Center
In 2003, the CPEA Network launched Data Coordinating Center in Medford, Massachusetts, to provide data management and statistical support for Network activities. The Center will also maintain a Web site to ease communication and coordinate activities within the CPEAs. Three groups are managing different tasks in the Data Coordinating Center: DMSTAT, Inc.; the Boston University Statistics and Consulting Unit; and the Department of Biostatistics at the Boston University School of Public Health. The Center will provide combined support for the CPEA Network and for the eight sites of the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) Centers Program, a five-year, $65 million effort supported by five NIH Institutes, including the NICHD. Such support will allow more data to be processed quickly and compared, which may increase the speed of discoveries from these research efforts.
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