Co-speech gestures and embodied cognition in autism
IMC Tuesday Seminar: Talk by Inge-Marie Eigsti, Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut, and Director of Research for the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Info about event
Time
Location
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus C, building 1483, room 312 and online
Organizer
Abstract
In classical approaches to cognition, sensory, motor, and emotional experiences are stripped of domain-specific perceptual and sensorimotor information, and represented in abstract form. In the embodied cognition framework, representations retain the initial imprint of the perceptual and motor systems thought which information was acquired. In this talk, I propose that autism is characterized by the reduced temporal coordination of motor and conceptual information; this change is evident in the differences in comprehension and production of co-speech gestures by autistic people, as well as in differences in implicit mimicry of motor behaviors. The "embodied account” of autism that helps us to understand social experiences and is driven in part by significant but subtle motor deficits.
About the speaker
Inge-Marie Eigsti, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut, and Director of Research for the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences. A licensed clinical psychologist, her research interests center on language/communication and brain development in autism, and she has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Currently, Dr. Eigsti is principal investigator (PI) on the NIDCD-funded CONNECT grant examining Conversation and Language in Autistic Teens, co-PI on an NSF training grant focused on neurodiversity and educational neuroscience, co-principal investigator of an NIDCD-funded training grant on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Communication, local PI on an NCHHD-funded grant examining the efficacy of toddler screening for autism, and co-PI on an NIMH-funded grant examining neural functioning and developmental predictors of adult outcomes in autism. She is committed to pursuing science that is inclusive of diverse perspectives and experiences and that illuminates the cognitive and neural underpinnings of autism. Dr. Eigsti received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology and brain and cognitive sciences from the University of Rochester.
Free of charge - All are welcome