Our Team

Eric Courchesne, PhD
ACE Director
Professor, UCSD Department of Neurosciences

Eric Courchesne is one of the world’s leading experts on the neurobiology of autism. He is the overall director and principle investigator of the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence, and is also the director of the UCSD Autism Center’s MRI Project on early brain development in autism.

His research and the Center are dedicated to uncovering the brain bases and genetic causes of autism. Current MRI studies of autism aim to identify the brain structures that are abnormal at infancy in autism and to discover patterns of abnormal early brain growth.

Current functional brain imaging techniques (“fMRI”) are used to establish links between autistic symptoms and the brain sites responsible for them. His studies of frontal cortex microstructure seek to identify abnormal developmental changes in microstructure and gene expression from early childhood to adulthood in autism.

Recognized through publications in such journals as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), his work has significantly contributed to scientists’ understanding of the biological bases of autism, and has been the source of new insights on the functional role of the frontal lobes and cerebellum.

Dr. Courchesne is frequently invited to lecture at major conferences and symposia and he has also made numerous media appearances, including as a featured guest on U.S., Canadian, Japanese, French, and British public TV science programs. His discoveries have also been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world, including Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

He is a member of several advisory boards, including Autism-France and the Autism Society of America. Dr. Courchesne’s studies have resulted in over 170 publications.

His research is supported through grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Cure Autism Now Foundation, the NICHD Developmental Brain and Tissue Bank at the University of Maryland, the Harvard Brain Bank and the Autism Tissue Program.

Karen Pierce, PhD
ACE Assistant Director
Associate Professor, UCSD Department of Neurosciences

Karen Pierce is Director of Clinical Research and the Director of Functional Brain Imaging at the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence (ACE).

Dr. Pierce has been in the field of autism research for over 20 years and began her career studying ways to treat autism through various behavioral therapies. After a decade of clinical research, she turned her attention to the brain and received a training award from the NIMH to respecialize in functional brain imaging.

Dr. Pierce’s past functional brain imaging research focused on understanding the neural substrates of abnormal social processing in young children and adults with autism. Her research suggested that the brain region involved in face processing, the so-called “fusiform face area,” (FFA) is abnormal when individuals with autism look at the faces of strangers, but engages more normally when viewing the faces of loved ones such as their mother.

This cumulative body of research led to the idea that it may be the systems that modulate the fusiform face area that are abnormal in autism, not the FFA per se.

Within the past few years Dr. Pierce has focused her efforts exclusively on the 12-36 month age period and engages in research aimed at discovering an early clinical and neurobiological signature of autism.

To study autism prospectively beginning at 12 months, Dr. Pierce developed the “1-Year Well-Baby Check-Up Approach” wherein thousands of babies in the general population are screened around their first birthday. Dr. Pierce has utilized sleep MRI methods to capture functional and structural information about the autistic brain at an age that often precedes diagnosis (e.g., 12-24 months).

Her goal is to use functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) to discover a functional brain signature of infants at-risk for autism. In so doing, infants and toddlers can begin treatment significantly earlier than heretofore conceived.

Dr. Pierce also uses eye tracking to discover early signatures of eye gaze patterns that may demonstrate elevated risk for autism in infants.

Her research is funded by several grants from the NIMH, as well as, private organizations such as Autism Speaks, National Foundation for Autism Research, and the Organization for Autism Research.

Her functional imaging and clinical work has been highlighted in major print and television media such as KPBS, KUSI, NBC, CNN, Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union Tribune and Newsweek Magazine.

Clelia Aherns-Barbeau
Lab Manager

Cindy Carter, PhD
Research Psychologist

Dr. Carter has been the Research Psychologist at the Center for Autism Research since early 2004, and has worked with children with autism and their families for 13 years. Before joining the Courchesne Laboratory, she served as the Director for Children's Hospital's Autism Intervention Center.

Dr. Carter received her master's and doctorate in educational psychology from the UC Santa Barbara in 2000, where she was trained in the Koegel Autism Center under the renowned autism treatment researcher, Robert Koegel.

She conducts the developmental and psychological evaluations of the individuals participating in our research and assigns diagnoses to the participants. She also is in charge of making sure our studies are in compliance with University and Hospital Human Protections Program regulations.

Anders Dale, PhD, founding Co-Director of the Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, an interdisciplinary initiative of the Departments of Neurosciences and Radiology. He is highly skilled in the development and utilization of multimodality imaging technologies.

Within both departments, Dr. Dale is the designated point person for integrating the various modes and methods of collecting imaging data, including functional MRI (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and optical imaging.

His efforts are directed in three areas: continuing development and refinement of accurate and automated algorithms for evaluation subjects using multimodality approaches to data collection; statistical analysis of data; and conducting studies in animal models using optical imaging, high field fMRI, and electrophysiological recordings to enhance the interpretation of neuroimaging studies.

Ilan Dinstein
Postdoc

Ilan Distein received his PhD in Neuroscience at NYU in 2009.

Lisa T. Eyler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Eyler is a clinical research psychologist who joined the Autism Center of Excellence in 2007. The focus of her research is exploring the structure and function of the brain in individuals across the lifespan. She is particularly interested in the effects of neuropsychiatric disorders and age, and on relating cognitive performance to brain measures. Her previous studies have examined brain function using functional magnetic resonance imaging in adults and seniors with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She has also studied the normal aging process using functional and structural MRI.

Dr. Eyler is author or co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, serves as reviewer or triage editor for numerous scientific journals, and presents her work regularly at national meetings. Her research has been funded by the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression, the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and the VA Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center. Dr. Eyler mentors graduate students in clinical psychology and serves as the director of a post-doctoral fellowship program for psychologists at the San Diego VA Medical Center.

Nicole Gallagher, MPH
Clinical Liaison

Linda Lopez
Pediatric Phlebotomist

Ms. Lopez has 12+ years experience as a phlebotomist and also spends her time assisting the psychologists and working with our Spanish speaking families.

Steven Marinero
MRI Laboratory Assistant

Mr. Marinero majored in Physiology and Neuroscience at UCSD. He is part of the MRI scan team, collecting scans and analyzing the data. He is also involved in the collection and analysis of eye tracking data. His primary interests include integrating diffusion tensor imaging with eye-tracking and he plans to further his education in a related field.

Sunny Pence
Clinical Coordinator

Ms. Pence graduated Cum Laude from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in psychology and specializing in physiological psychology. She is interested in the neurological correlates of behavior in ASD and is currently finishing her Master’s degree in psychological research from SFSU. At the lab she is involved in directly coordinating aspects of the clinical team such as overseeing student research assistants and working with families.

Laura Schreibman, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Autism Research Program at UC San Diego, will head up the UCSD Autism Centers’ Treatment Response Core of the Autism Center for Excellence.

With more than 30 years’ experience in the behavioral treatment and experimental analysis of autism, Schreibman is one of the world’s leading authorities in the field. She is the author of many books on autism, most recently, “The Science and Fiction of Autism” (Harvard UP, 2005).

The Treatment Response Core will provide one year of intensive behavioral modification therapy to children identified as high-risk for developing autism. Beginning when they are 24 months old, the children will receive 15 hours per week of free, state-of-the-art therapy, individualized to the child’s needs and aimed at improving their social, communication and other developmental skills.

The children will be assessed again at 36 months to determine who benefited most and if there are physiological correlates that would be helpful in the future for identifying the best-fit intervention from the start.

Previous Team Members

Kathleen Campbell
MRI Laboratory Assistant

Roxana Hazin
Clinical Coordinator

Maisi Mayo
MRI Laboratory Assistant

Stephanie Solso
MRI Laboratory Assistant

Stuart J. Spendlove, PhD
Bilingual Research Psychologist

Julia Young
MRI Laboratory Assistant