Summary: This presentation reviews the Sensory Processing Criteria in the DSM5 Autism clinical criteria and provides an overview of sensory and attention based differences in autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. The role of neuroimaging in sensory processing assessment is discussed in light of relevant neuroanatomy. Sensory processing and neuroimaging assessment will be introduced as guides for treatment as well as the use of iPad technology for diagnosis and treatment.
Presented live and recorded November 2014.
Level: Advanced
Intended Audience: Occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, physical therapists, special education teachers, psychologists, early intervention specialists, nurses, physicians, mental health providers and parents
Prerequisite: None
Presenter: Elysa Marco, MD, is the director of research for the UCSF Autism and Neurodevelopment Program (ANP). In addition to the founding and directing research efforts for the UCSF ANP, Dr. Marco directs the cognitive and behavioral child neurology clinic and participates in the neurology and genetics multidisciplinary autism clinics at UCSF. Dr. Marco’s research laboratory applies her clinical expertise in cognition and behavior to understanding the neural mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders related to autism, agenesis of the corpus callosum, sensory processing disorder (SPD), ADHD, and brain injury. Her laboratory is focuses on how individuals with neurodevelopmental differences process basic sensory information from perception to action. Her research investigates how children with a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders process sensory information using magnetoencephalographic imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Her expanding treatment projects are targeting computer training as a tool for augmenting positive brain plasticity.
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the shift in sensory-based deficits in the new autism DSM-5 criteria
- Understand the research movement away from clinical based disorders to genetic and neural network based dimensions of cognitive processing
- Identify the neural networks implicated in Sensory Processing Disorder
- Consider mobile based assessment and treatment of cognitive challenges including attention and sensory processing