Projects
Shifting gears for autism - Project to make autism into a fixed concept in training for driving examiners Hasselt University
Deficits in uncertainty processing in autism? Testing a new cognitive theory for autism based on high, inflexible precision of prediction errors. KU Leuven
The importance of prediction or expectation in the functioning of the mind is appreciated at least since the birth of psychology as a separate discipline. We continuously predict the world around us, because we learned the statistical regularities that govern it. It is often only when predictions go awry —when the sensory input does not match with the predictions we implicitly formed— that we become conscious of this incessant predictive ...
In search for an innovative neural marker and intervention for socio-communicative difficulties in autism spectrum disorders’ KU Leuven
Can non-invasive brain stimulation combined with oxytocin-based pharmacotherapy enhance brain function in autism? Investigating the neural and behavioral effects of two promising intervention approaches KU Leuven
The last decade, neuroscience research provided increasing insights in how different brain regions work together to constitute the neural networks that underlie human social behavior. Targeting these networks to improve or restore social function would be of high relevance for neuropsychiatric conditions that have specific implications in social and communicative domains, such as autism spectrum disorders. At present, neuro-modulating ...
Coming of age: a multi-method inquiry into young adulthood & autism KU Leuven
Young adulthood is a developmental stage in which changes in occupation, place of residence, and relationships take place, and decisions that shape the rest of adult life are made. To make these decisions, young adults typically experiment and relate to their peers to shape their identities. The self is found out not only through experimentation and exploration, but also reflected back in the eyes of the other. A group that has problems with ...
Characterizing face processing plasticity using LTP-like visual stimulation: behavioral and neuroimaging studies in typical subjects and in Autism Spectrum Disorders. KU Leuven
It has recently been shown that visual performance can be improved in a longlasting manner with fast passive stimulation, and reduced with slow stimulation. Thus far this effect has only been demonstrated for elementary visual stimuli (black and white bars). We started to explore the translation of this principle to high-level vision, in particular to face processing. Our first results show clear differential performance in a face ...
In all its colours and complexity. A conceptual and methodological study on parenting young children in the context of (emerging) autism KU Leuven
Parenting can be viewed as a relationship in which parent and child influence each other over an extended period of time, creating a spiral of intertwined reciprocal influences. In the context of autism, the hypothesis was formulated that genetic factors associated with autism, present at birth, may alter a child’s interaction with its social environment (including parenting), and that this gene-environment interaction may amplify early ...
Affirming Neurodiversity: A study on the ethics of early autism detection and intervention KU Leuven
Autism is ever more considered an expression of neurodiversity, instead of a disorder. But what does this shift mean for clinical care for autistic people and their relatives? This doctoral dissertation explores the ethics of early autism detection and intervention. It investigates what good and just early autism care could look like in this era of neurodiversity. The first two introductory chapters unpack this ethical debate. I provide a ...