Biography

Damien Fair’s research interests are cognitive brain development; ADHD; autism and neuroimaging. His laboratory focuses on mechanisms and principles that underlie the developing brain. The majority of this work uses functional MRI and resting state functional connectivity MRI to assess typical and atypical populations. A second focus has become testing the feasibility of using various functional and structural MRI techniques in translational studies of developmental neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism). We are exploring ways to better characterize individual patients with these psychopathologies to help guide future diagnostic, therapeutic and genetic studies.

1-150 - Characterizing Large-scale Brain Networks in Children with Autism and ADHD

Session Type: Invited Address

Integrative Statement

Research in psychiatry often relies on the assumption that the diagnostic categories identified in the DSM represent homogeneous syndromes. However, the mechanistic heterogeneity that potentially underlies the existing classification scheme might limit discovery of etiology. In our current work we expand on previous brain imaging methods and use graph theory, specifically community detection, to clarifying behavioral and functional heterogeneity in children with ADHD and Autism. We have been able to identify several unique subgroups of children within these disorders, and importantly, in some cases, in control populations as well. Just as notably, we also show in these longitudinal samples that this refined nosology is capable of improving our predictive capacity of long-term outcomes relative to current DSM-based nosology. We argue that illumination of such phenomena will have significant practical importance for understanding typical development and to identifying the etiologic underpinnings of atypical developmental trajectories.

Sub Unit

• Invited Program on Neuroscience & Child Development

Chair

• Jamie J Jirout, University of Virginia

Speaker

• Damien Fair, Oregon Health and Science University