People

DSC07113-eigsti-squareInge-Marie Eigsti, Ph.D., Lab Director

 

 

 Graduate Students
Brian Castelluccio
(2012)
brian.castelluccio@uconn.edu
bcastelluccio_headshot
Brian is interested in the neural and cognitive bases of atypical language development in individuals with autism spectrum disorders as well as typical development. He is exploring questions related to these research areas using fMRI techniques. Brian is also broadly interested in the intersection of complex trait genetics and cognitive science. As a fellow in UConn’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, Language Plasticity: Genes, Brain, Cognition, and Computation, Brian enjoys cross-disciplinary collaborations that approach complex questions in nontraditional ways.
  • Castelluccio, B., Myers, E. B., Schuh, J. M., & Eigsti, I. M. (2015). Neural substrates of processing anger in language: Contributions of prosody and semantics. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.
  • Castelluccio, B. C., Meda, S. A., Muska, C. E., Stevens, M. C., & Pearlson, G. D. (2014). Error processing in current and former cocaine users. Brain Imaging Behav, 8, 87-96.
  • Rendall, A. R., Truong, D. T., Castelluccio, B. C., Eigsti, I. M., & Fitch, R. H. (2015). Language deficits in autism and assessment of the Cntnap2 mouse. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 47, 93. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2015.04.253.
  • Truong, D. T., Rendall, A. R., Castelluccio, B. C., Eigsti, I. M., & Fitch, R. H. (2015). Auditory processing and morphological anomalies in medial geniculate nucleus of Cntnap2 mutant mice. Behavioral Neuroscience, 26.
Allison Canfield (2012)
allison.canfield@uconn.edu
Allison Canfield		 Allison is a graduate student in the Department of Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include language, gesture, and audiovisual integration in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders.

  • Canfield, A. R., Eigsti, I. M., de Marchena, A., & Fein, D. (in press). Story goodness in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and in optimal outcomes from ASD. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.
  • Suh, J., Eigsti, I. M., Canfield, A., Irvine, C., Naigles, L., & Fein, D. A. (in press). Language representation and language use in children with optimal outcomes from autism spectrum disorder. In L. Naigles (Ed.), Innovative Investigations of Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Berlin, Germany: APA/Walter de Gruyter.
  • Silverman, L.B. & Canfield, A.R. (2013). Auditory verbal learning. In F. Volkmar (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer Publishing.
Joshua Green(2013)
joshua.2.green@uconn.edu
joshgreen		 Joshua Green is a graduate student in the Department of Clinical Psychology.  His research interests center broadly on language and autism. He is particularly interested in how the processing and learning of speech prosody is altered by social bonding as well as how it interacts with social discourse and the development of interpersonal functioning. Josh is a fellow in the IGERT Program: Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program: Language Plasticity- Genes, Brain, Cognition, and Computation.

  • Green, J. J., & Hollander, E. (2010). Autism and oxytocin: new developments in translational approaches to therapeutics. Neurotherapeutics, 7(3).
  • Eigsti, I. M., Irvine, C., & Green, J. (in press). Language in autism spectrum disorders: A poorly-oiled machine. In S. Durrleman & H. Delage (Eds.), Langage et cognition dans l’autisme : Recueil de contributions scientifiques à destination des cliniciens. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: de boeck/Oxford University Press.
 Anders Hogstrom (2014)
anders.hogstrom@uconn.eduanders		 Anders Hogstrom is a third-year graduate student in Clinical Psychology. He came  from Howard Nusbaum’s laboratory at the University of Chicago. He is interested in the interaction between language and broader cognitive processes, such as attention, in autism spectrum disorders. His MA thesis concerns the influence of top-down expectations on speech processing in ASD. A pianist, he is also part of a collaborative project with Ed Large, to study musical expertise in ASD.
 Karla Figueroa-Rivera (2016)

karla.rivera_figueroa@uconn.edu

Karla Rivera Figueroa on Sept. 1, 2016. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
Photo credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

 

Mackenzie Stabile (2017)

mackenzie.stabile@uconn.edu

 Mackenzie Stabile is a graduate student in Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include the interaction between cognitive processes such as cognitive control and language in autism spectrum disorders, learning, and mechanisms of change in individuals with optimal outcomes from autism spectrum disorders.

Lab Alumni
Jillian deGroot Schuh (2005)JillianSchuh Current position:Pediatric Neuropsychologist
Catalpa HealthAssistant Adjunct Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Department of Neurology
Division of Neuropsychology

  • Castelluccio, B., Myers, E. B., Schuh, J. M., & Eigsti, I. M. (2015). Neural substrates of processing anger in language: Contributions of prosody and semantics. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.
  • Eigsti, I. M., de Marchena, A. B., Schuh, J. M., & Kelley, E. (2011). Language acquisition in autism spectrum disorders: A developmental review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5, 681-91.
  • Eigsti, I. M., & Schuh, J. M. (2008). Neurobiological underpinnings of language in autism spectrum disorders. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 28, 128-49.
  • Eigsti, I. M., & Schuh, J. M. (in press). Language acquisition in autism spectrum disorders: Beyond standardized language measures. In L. Naigles (Ed.), Innovative Investigations of Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Berlin, Germany: APA/Walter de Gruyter.
  • Eigsti, I. M., Schuh, J. M., Mencl, E., Schultz, R. T., & Paul, R. (2012). The neural underpinnings of prosody in autism. Child Neuropsychology, 18, 600-17.
  • Schuh, J. M., & Eigsti, I. M. (2012). Working memory, language skills, and autism symptomatology. Behavioral Sciences, 2, 207-18.
  • Schuh, J. M., Eigsti, I. M., & Mirman, D. (in press). Referential communication in autism spectrum disorder: The roles of working memory and theory of mind. Autism Research.
 Ashley de Marchena 
(2006)
demarchenaa@email.chop.eduashley		 Current position: Assistant Professor,  University of the Sciences, Philadelphia.

Her primary interests are language, learning, and gesture, and how these distinct capacities are related to brain development.

  • de Marchena, A., & Eigsti, I. M. (2015). The art of common ground: Emergence of a complex pragmatic language skill in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Language. doi:10.1017/S0304000915000070
  • de Marchena, A., & Eigsti, I. M. (in press). Gesture in social vs. non-social contexts: The varied functions of co-speech gesture are highlighted in autism spectrum disorder. Gesture.
  • de Marchena, A., Eigsti, I. M., & Yerys, B. E. (in press). Brief Report: Generalization weaknesses in verbally fluent children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
  • de Marchena, A., & Eigsti, I. M. (2010). Conversational gestures in autism spectrum disorders: Asynchrony but not decreased frequency. Autism Research, 3, 311-322. doi: 10.1002/aur.159
  • de Marchena, A., Eigsti, I. M., Worek, A., Ono, K.E., & Snedeker, J. (2011). Mutual exclusivity in autism spectrum disorders: Testing the pragmatic hypothesis. Cognition, 119, 96-113. doi: 10.1002/aur.159
  • Eigsti, I. M., de Marchena, A.B., Schuh, J.M., & Kelley, E. (2011). Language acquisition in autism spectrum disorders: A developmental review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5, 681-691.
  • Eigsti, I. M., Weitzman, C., Schuh, J.M., de Marchena, Ashley, & Casey, B.J. (2011). Language and cognitive outcomes in internationally adopted children. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 629-646. doi: 10.1017/S0954579411000204
Jessica Bean Jaworski(2007)
jessica.bean@uconn.edu
jessicabean		 Jessica’s research focuses on the development of joint attention in children with autism spectrum disorders, and its influence in adolescence. She is currently a Staff Neuropsychologist at Baystate Medical Center.

  • Jaworski, J. L., & Eigsti, I. M. (2015). Low-level visual attention and its relation to joint attention in autism spectrum disorder. Child Neuropsychol, 15, 1-16.

  • Bean, J.L., & Eigsti, I.M. (2012). Assessment of joint attention in school-age children and adolescents. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6, 1304-1310. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2012.04.003
 Jessie Mayo, M.A.(2008)
jessica.mayo@uconn.eduJessie Mayo		 Current position: Assistant Clinical Professor,  Yale School of Medicine, Yale Child Study Center.

Research interests center on the biological, cognitive, and social factors that influence language development. In addition to focusing on language development among children who are biologically at risk (e.g. children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, children with epilepsy), Jessie is also interested in the social and emotional factors that are required for typical development.

  • Eigsti, I. M., & Mayo, J. (2011). Implicit learning in ASD. In D. Fein (Ed.), Neuropsychology of Autism (pp. 267-80). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Mayo, J., Chlebowski, C., Fein, D. A., & Eigsti, I.-M. (2013). Age of first words predicts cognitive ability and adaptive skills in children with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, 253-64.
  • Mayo, J., Chlebowski, C., Fein, D. A., & Eigsti, I. M. (2013). Age of first words predicts cognitive ability and adaptive skills in children with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, 253-64. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1558-0.
  • Mayo, J., & Eigsti, I. M. (2012). A comparison of statistical learning in school-aged children with high functioning autism and typically developing peers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 2476-85.
Christina Irvine (2010)

christina.irvine@uconn.edu

Christina Irvine

Christy is currently on internship at the Newington VA. Her research focuses on the intersection of language and social cognition in typical and atypical development. Her current research explores the social-pragmatic aspects of speech disfluency, the relationship between language and theory of mind, and embodied cognition in children with autism spectrum disorders. More broadly, Christy is interested in the development of social and interpersonal functioning across the lifespan.

  • Eigsti, I. M., & Irvine, C. (under review). Inner speech, language, and theory of mind in highly-verbal adolescents with autism.
  • Eigsti, I. M., Irvine, C., & Green, J. (in press). Language in autism spectrum disorders: A poorly-oiled machine. In S. Durrleman & H. Delage (Eds.), Langage et cognition dans l’autisme : Recueil de contributions scientifiques à destination des cliniciens. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: de boeck/Oxford University Press.
  • Irvine, C. A., Eigsti, I. M., & Fein, D. A. (2016). Uh, Um, and autism: Filler disfluencies as pragmatic markers in adolescents with optimal outcomes from autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 1061-70.
  • Suh, J., Eigsti, I. M., Canfield, A., Irvine, C., Naigles, L., & Fein, D. A. (in press). Language representation and language use in children with optimal outcomes from autism spectrum disorder. In L. Naigles (Ed.), Innovative Investigations of Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Berlin, Germany: APA/Walter de Gruyter.

 International Visitors
Irina Polyanskaya, Roskild University

Denmark

 Irina’s thesis examines second-order false beliefs and recursive complement development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Polyanskaya, Irina, Braüner, Torben, Blackburn, Patrick. 2018. Proceedings of the 42nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Massachusetts, USA : Cascadilla Press.
 Cecilia Brynskov, Aarhus University
DenmarkCecilia Brynskov		 Cecilia’s Ph.D. thesis examined structural language  in Danish children with ASD, at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is currently on the faculty at Aarhus.

  • Brynskov, C., & Eigsti, I. M. (2010). Det tidlige sprog hos børn med autisme – en udviklingsmæssigt afgørende faktor [The critical influence of early language abilities in autism on longterm outcomes]. Psyke &  Logos, 31, 443-60.
  • Brynskov, C., Eigsti, I. M., Jørgensen, M., Lemcke, S., Bohn, O.-S., & Krøjgaard, P. (in press). Syntax and morphology in Danish-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
  • Brynskov, C., Krøjgaard, P., & Eigsti, I. M. (2015). Language and communication in children with autism: A critical look at three assumptions and their clinical implications. Nordic Psychology.
 Katherine Mumford
University of Birmingham (U.K.)		 Katherine is a Ph.D. student in the  Department of Cognitive Development at the University of Birmingham; she works with Sotaro Kita, studying the relationship between language, cognition and action.

  • Mumford, K. H., & Kita, S. (2014). Children use gesture to interpret novel verb meanings. Child Dev, 85(3), 1181-1189. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12188
 Marthe Høppenermarthehoppener Marthe is a Ph.D. student at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. She is interested in peer interactions among children with autism spectrum disorders, among other things.

 Undergraduate Lab Members

 

 

  DCNlab2004
2016-2017  Parah Shah (pre-med), Snigdha Wadhwa (pre-med), Sindhu Dokuru (pre-med), Tanya Rao (pre-med), Caitlin Emmett (SLHS), Meghan Robitaille (SLHS)
2015-2016 Parah Shah (Pre-med), Morgan Smith (pre-med), Ryan Morris (pre-med), Snigdha Wadhwa (pre-med), Sindhu Dokuru (pre-med), Molly Waterman (IGERT Program Assistant), Jessa Sahl (post-bac RA in the lab of Bonnie Nozari at Johns Hopkins)
2014-2015 Parah Shah (Pre-med), Didem Ozcan (PNB/Bio), Morgan Smith (pre-med), Ryan Morris (Pre-med)
Summer 2014 Molly Waterhouse (Syracuse University), Griffen Burrows (Wheaton College)
2013-2014 Emily Thompson, SURF grant, Honors Program; Katy Piotrowski, Honors Program
 2012-2013 Christopher Andrade (Ling Major); English Teaching in Japan (JET Program)
Allison Fitch (Psych/Human Development): Ph.D. in Developmental and Brain Sciences at UMass Boston, 2012
Amanda Makol (Pre-med),
Emily Thompson (SLSH)
 2011-2012 Christopher Andrade (Ling Major)
Allison Fitch (Psych/Human Development): Ph.D. in Developmental and Brain Sciences at UMass Boston, 2012
Amanda Makol (Pre-med)
Emily Thompson (SLSH)
Bonnie Stas
 2010-2011 Elira Fifo, 2010
Danielle Daley (Honors)
Kaitlin De Yoe (Honors, SURF award)
Karissa Burgess
Sonia Altavilla
Abby Morriso
2009-2010 Caitlin Dombrowski: (Honors) UConn, Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology
Jose Casares: Teachers College/Columbia University, Counseling Psychology
Danielle Loughrey
Liz Tzatkin: Research assistant
Kathryn Post: Research Assistant
Juliana Hartley: Teach for America (Honors); MA student in Speech-Language Pathology at Univ New Hampshire
2008-2009 Justine Marsh: Practicing Speech-Language Pathologist, CT
Ashley Lepack
Terry Gustafson: Pre-med
Lauren Long: Ph.D. program in Behavioral Neuroscience, UConn
2007-2008  Jessica St. Pierre
David Roy
David Morrow
Heather Washburn
Kim Markoff
Kim Hayhurst
Stefanie Riegler
 2006-2007 Kayla Marot
Mark Rogalski
Melissa Martinez
Corey Alexa
Tuhina Joseph
2005-2006 Lauren Czepizak
Cara Orazietti
Judith Shulman
Stephanie Ceniccola
2004-2005 Nojan Bakhtiari, pre-dental
Lisa Cataudella
Jessica Bennett
Kelly Chang

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