Ami Klin, Ph.D.

Director, Autism Program
Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine

Research Interests

Our program of research focuses on mechanisms of socialization and their disruption in the autism spectrum disorders. This work includes a close collaboration with Warren Jones in the development of novel techniques to quantify social processes using eye-tracking technologies with a view to visualize and measure the ontogeny of social engagement. New data analytic strategies have been used with children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorders revealing abnormalities of visual scanning behaviors when viewing naturalistic social approaches and situations. With the support of the Simons Foundation, we are currently monitoring babies at-risk for autism from birth for indicators of the earliest divergence from the normative pathways in social development. Our goal is to create objective measurements of vulnerabilities for autism in the first year or maybe months of life, possibly before the emergence of detectable symptoms. This program of research also includes studies of the ability to impose social meaning on ambiguous visual displays, probing systems involved in the perception of biological motion and human action more broadly.

Additional projects include studies of diagnostic profiles, neuropsychology, adaptive functioning and circumscribed interests in autism spectrum disorders. Collaborations include studies in functional neuroimaging, genetics, neurobiology, and psychopharmacology.

Links

• Autism Web site

Recent Publications

• Volkmar, F.R., Klin, A., Paul, R., Cohen, J.D. (2005). Handbook of Autism, 3rd Edition, New York: Wiley.
• Chawarska, K., Klin, A., Volkmar, F.R. (2005). Automatic attention cuing through eye movement in 2-year-old children with autism. Child Development, 56, 315-336.
• Paul, R., Schriberg, L., McSweeney, Cicchetti, D., Klin, A., Volkmar, F.R. (2005). Relations between prosodic performance and communication and socialization strategies in high functioning speakers with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 35(2), 205-220.
• Klin, A., Pauls, D., Schultz, R., Volkmar, F.R. (2005). Three diagnostic approaches to Asperger syndrome: Implications for research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(2), 221-234.
• Woodbury-Smith, M., Klin, A., Volkmar, F.R. (2005). Brief Report: Asperger's Syndrome: A comparison of clinical diagnoses and those made according to the ICD-10 and DSM-IV. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(2), 235-240.
• Paul, R., Augustyn, A., Klin, A., Volkmar, F.R. (2005). Perception and production of prosody by speakers with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(2), 205-220.
• Grelotti, D, Klin, A., Gauthier, I, Skudlarski P, Cohen, D., Gore, J., Volkmar, F.R., Schultz, R. (2005). fMRI activation of the fusiform gyrus and amygdala to cartoon characters but not to faces in a body with autism. Neuropsychologica, 43, 373-385.
• Volkmar, F.R., Lord, C., Bailey, A., Schultz, R., Klin, A. (2004). Autism and pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(1):135-170, 2004.
• Volkmar, F.R., Lord, C, Bailey, A., Schultz, R.T., Klin, A.J. (2004). Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(1):135-170.
• Volkmar, F.R., Klin, A., Schultz, R., Chawarska, K, Jones, W. (2003) The Social Brain in Autism. Chapter in The Social brain: Evolution and Pathology. M. Brune, H. Ribbert, and W. Schiefenhovel, Eds., New York: Wiley, pp. 167-195.
• Volkmar F.R., Wiesner, E.A. (2004) Health care for children on the autism spectrum.Bethesda, MD, Woodbine House.

Contact

Campus Address
Child Study Center
230 South Frontage Road
P.O. Box 207900
New Haven, CT 06520-7900

Office Address
SHM G134

E-mail
ami.klin@yale.edu

Office Phone
203-785-3565