Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) medical student, Amber Dubiel, co-authored an original research paper which was recently published in the journal Neuroscience. Along with LECOM faculty member Randy Kulesza, Ph.D., Dubiel participated in a study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Using an animal model of ASD, the research explored how the processing of sound inputs could impact the language deficits that individuals with ASD often have.
Pursuing her Masters in Biomedical Science degree at LECOM Erie in Pennsylvania, Dubiel embarked on a research project with Dr. Kulesza whose research on ASD appealed greatly to Dubiel. Her step-brother is autistic and utilizes sign language but is unable to speak. The research paper explores how the auditory brainstem in the ASD model responds to sound stimuli in a stronger and less organized pattern than the response in a non-autistic model. This disorganization of the sound inputs, seen in the animal models, helps to explain why autistic individuals have such a difficulty with verbal language, but respond well to non-verbal language such as sign language.
