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Loisa Bennetto, Ph.D., has spent much of her scholarly career trying to unravel the biological and psychological mechanisms behind autism, a neurological developmental disorder with no known cause that affects as many as 1 in 150 children in the United States.

Parents frequently tell us that their children with autism are picky eaters, and for some children, it can have a significant impact on their health, says Bennetto, an expert in the neurocognitive bases of autism. Understanding why a child with autism refuses certain foods could be a tremendous help to struggling families. That understanding could also help identify the hereditary source for the atypical sensory perceptions—and may help isolate some of the genes—involved in autism.

This spring, Bennetto received a major boost in her efforts when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded her a $3 million grant to follow up on her preliminary studies, which indicate that children with autism are less able to identify tastes and smells than their normally developing peers.