Lead Principal Investigator: Eddie Chang, MD

UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences

Overview

This project leverages cutting-edge neurosensing and neuromodulation technologies to map brain circuits in autistic individuals and identify the neural signatures of core symptoms, with a focus on language and communication. 

Hypothesis

Core neural information processing is disrupted in autism, resulting in difficulties processing rapid auditory cues and impairments in verbal communication.

Goal

To create the first “electrical portrait” of the autistic brain by identifying key neural circuits, deciphering their dynamic activity patterns, and translating these discoveries into targeted neuromodulation therapies.

Lead Principal Investigator:  Murat Günel, MD

Yale School of Medicine

Overview

This project aims to develop non-invasive methods to improve functional communication for autistic individuals by building personalized, large-scale brain models that decode internal mental states and guide real-time neuromodulation. These models will be trained to map surface signals to deep brain activity using intracranial data.

Hypothesis

Patterns of brain circuit dysfunction in autism can be identified by learning from intracranial recordings and generalized as non-invasive surface signals through large-scale brain models, enabling real-time decoding and modulation of communication-relevant brain states.

Goal

To create and validate personalized, large brain models that support non-invasive decoding and neuromodulation strategies for communication and therapeutic intervention in autism.

Lead Principal Investigator: Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD

Stanford Medicine

Overview

This project applies the latest neurosensing and neuromodulation technologies to investigate how maladaptive timescales contribute to symptoms of autism and develop “digital twin” brain models to identify targetable brain activity patterns for therapeutic intervention.

Hypothesis

In autism, certain brain networks linked to social communication and language show prolonged neural activity patterns and increased connection to each other, while other regions become excluded from global processing. This can lead to situationally inappropriate behaviors. 

Goal

To rapidly identify targetable neural activity patterns underlying autism-related behaviors by measuring and understanding the timing of brain signals that process sensory information, ultimately developing both invasive and non-invasive therapeutic interventions.