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IMFAR 2012 Press Conference

Alison Singer of the Autism Science Foundation introduced the speakers in her role as co-chair of IMFAR public relations committee. She noted that INSAR has encouraged autistic people and other community stakeholders to participate at IMFAR, as volunteers, etc. TPGA coverage of IMFAR will start in the morning! Don’t forget to follow us on @thinkingautism, and check back here for updates. —- The first speaker was the president of INSAR, Helen Tager-Flusberg: This conference’s goal is focusing on the very best science, and the immediate dissemination of it. INSAR, the International Society of Autism Research, is moving into second decade. The first conference had approximately 200 attendees, and was tagged onto neuroscience conference in Orlando, Florida. This year’s conference will be the largest ever, with well over 1800 people in main the main conference. (There is also a pre-conference on disseminating IMFAR 2012 work to parents, clinicians, and other stakeholders…

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Interview: Dr. Sally Ozonoff on the MIND Institute Infant Sibling Study

Dr. Sally Ozonoff is the Principal Investigator of the Infant Sibling Study Team at the UC Davis MIND Institute. We talked with Dr. Ozonoff about her autism research work, how the Infant Sibling Study operates, and what the study does and does not mean. This interview took place before yesterday’s CDC announcement about autism prevalence rates, but Dr. Ozonoff’s team had some similar findings within their own study, especially regarding earlier/more intense scrutiny leading to earlier and increased rates of autism diagnoses. How did you become involved with the Infant Sibling study? Is it in line with your previous areas of research? I have always been interested in diagnostic issues within the autism spectrum. I began my work in the autism field researching individuals with Asperger syndrome, trying to understand if and how they differed from individuals with autism. This was back in the early 1990s, when Asperger syndrome had…