Rosanna De Meo

During my PhD I studied adult auditory semantic processing. The main topic of my thesis was to understand how environmental sounds become meaningful using the electroencephalography (EEG) technique. My work in the Saron Lab is on the analysis of sensory processing and integration in typically developing children and those on the autism spectrum.

My research focuses on how the brain creates meaningful concepts or representations from sensory stimuli that in turn enable us to perceive our environment as a comprehensible whole. It is known that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) present unusual responses to sensory inputs (typically either hyper- or hypo-responsiveness), and may have difficulties in binding together information arriving simultaneously from different sensory modalities. Additionally, it is known that the severity and expression of the impairments characteristic of ASD are highly variable from one individual to another. The investigation and definition of brain responses to simple sensory stimulations in ASD, and their relation to neuropsychological profiles, can enable a more complete understanding of how these children perceive their world.

I am involved in two projects and collaborate with other research groups at the CMB (notably Dr. Susan Rivera) and at the MIND Institute. The first project aims at investigating altered auditory processing in toddlers with ASD and age-matched typically developing children as part of the MIND Institute Autism Phenome Project. The second project aims at investigating deficits in multisensory associations in early adolescents with ASD and age-matched typically developing teenagers.

Education: BS in Psychology (2009), University of Lausanne, Switzerland: MS in Neuroscience (2011), University of Geneva, Switzerland; PhD in Neuroscience (2015), University of Lausanne, Switzerland