Autism spectrum disorders

The BML uses movies, narratives, and VR to study human higher cognitive functions especially social cognition and emotions in ecologically valid stimulus and task conditions during neuroimaging. The laboratory develops new methods, in particular data-analysis approaches, hand-in-hand with the empirical work, and has been involved in translational research via collaborations.

My core areas of interest are mental health, public health, sexual health and gender and health. I am a psychiatrist, epidemiologist and an expert in public health and sexual health. My work examines the interface of mental health and wellbeing in adolescents and young adults using data from nationwide Finnish Twin Cohorts, combining clinical expertise with epidemiological methods. I am a member of the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.

My research has investigated neurobiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism spectrum disorder, using fragile X syndrome (FXS) as a model disease. We have shown that the absence of FMR1 protein affects differentiation of human and mouse FXS neural progenitors leading changes in calcium dynamics and functional responses of differentiated neuronal cells.