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Loisa Bennetto, Ph.D.

Loisa Bennetto, Ph.D.

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Office (585) 275-8712

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About Me

Faculty Appointments

Associate Professor - Department of Neuroscience (SMD) - Joint

Credentials

Education

PhD | University of Denver. Clinical Psychology. 1999

BA | Yale University. Psychology. 1988

Research

Professor Bennetto's research interests focus on the neurocognitive bases of autism and other developmental disorders. Her recent work examines the role of multisensory processing in social-communication difficulties and in everyday behaviors, including restricted food preferences.

My program...
Professor Bennetto's research interests focus on the neurocognitive bases of autism and other developmental disorders. Her recent work examines the role of multisensory processing in social-communication difficulties and in everyday behaviors, including restricted food preferences.

My program of research is broadly directed at examining the neurocognitive bases of developmental disabilities, with the ultimate goal of understanding how atypical neurocognitive development relates to deficits in social-communication difficulties as well as everyday difficulties with adaptive functioning. My lab focuses primarily on understanding autism spectrum disorders, but we have also been working to understand other developmental disorders such as Down syndrome, as well as normal developmental processes.

Our recent work examines the role of multisensory processing in several domains, including social communication and feeding. Some of our current projects in the domain of social communication in autism examine audiovisual speech perception, hearing-in-noise perception (including both speech-in-noise and music-in-noise), speech-and-gesture production and comprehension, and the role of atypical sensorimotor function in facial expressiveness. Our research on feeding investigates the role of multisensory processing in the development of restrictive food preferences (picky eating) in children with autism. We are interested in understanding the relative roles of sensory functions (including taste and olfaction), behavioral factors (e.g., restricted behavior style, neophobia), and family preferences on eating behaviors.

Clinical Trials

​Language comprehension in ASD​

Lead Researcher: Loisa Bennetto

​In this online study, an adolescent will schedule a Zoom appointment with a researcher and complete a computer-based listening study that may take up to 45 minutes. The parent will then complete background information surveys, which may take up to 2...

Publications

Journal Articles

"Look Who's Talking": Language Patterns in Autistic and Non-Autistic Youth Across Different Conversation Partners.

Richardson AA, Zampella CJ, Bennetto L

Journal of autism and developmental disorders.. 2024 October 16 Epub 10/16/2024.

Perception and adaptation of receptive prosody in autistic adolescents.

Kurumada C, Rivera R, Allen P, Bennetto L

Scientific reports.. 2024 July 1614 (1):16409. Epub 07/16/2024.

Grammaticality judgments in autism: Deviance or delay - CORRIGENDUM.

Eigsti IM, Bennetto L

Journal of child language.. 2023 March 50 (2):492. Epub 02/06/2023.

Applications of identity-based theories to understand the impact of stigma and camouflaging on mental health outcomes for autistic people.

Rivera RA, Bennetto L

Frontiers in psychiatry.. 2023 14 :1243657. Epub 09/06/2023.

Atypical visual motion prediction abilities in autism spectrum disorder.

Park WJ, Schauder KB, Kwon OS, Bennetto L, Tadin D

Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.. 2021 September 19 (5):944-960. Epub 04/13/2021.

Visual Attention Preference for Intermediate Predictability in Young Children.

Cubit LS, Canale R, Handsman R, Kidd C, Bennetto L

Child development.. 2021 March 92 (2):691-703. Epub 01/08/2021.

Computer Vision Analysis of Reduced Interpersonal Affect Coordination in Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Zampella CJ, Bennetto L, Herrington JD

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research.. 2020 December 13 (12):2133-2142. Epub 07/15/2020.

Interactional Synchrony and Its Association with Social and Communication Ability in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Zampella CJ, Csumitta KD, Simon E, Bennetto L

Journal of autism and developmental disorders.. 2020 September 50 (9):3195-3206. Epub 1900 01 01.

Initial eye gaze to faces and its functional consequence on face identification abilities in autism spectrum disorder.

Schauder KB, Park WJ, Tsank Y, Eckstein MP, Tadin D, Bennetto L

Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders.. 2019 December 2811 (1):42. Epub 12/28/2019.

The Importance of Adolescent Self-Report in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Integration of Questionnaire and Autonomic Measures.

Keith JM, Jamieson JP, Bennetto L

Journal of abnormal child psychology.. 2019 April 47 (4):741-754. Epub 1900 01 01.

The Influence of Noise on Autonomic Arousal and Cognitive Performance in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Keith JM, Jamieson JP, Bennetto L

Journal of autism and developmental disorders.. 2019 January 49 (1):113-126. Epub 1900 01 01.

Expanding the neurodevelopmental phenotype of PURA syndrome.

Lee BH, Reijnders MRF, Abubakare O, Tuttle E, Lape B, Minks KQ, Stodgell C, Bennetto L, Kwon J, Fong CT, Gripp KW, Marsh ED, Smith WE, Huq AM, Coury SA, Tan WH, Solis O, Mehta RI, Leventer RJ, Baralle D, Hunt D, Paciorkowski AR

American journal of medical genetics. Part A.. 2018 January 176 (1):56-67. Epub 11/17/2017.

High internal noise and poor external noise filtering characterize perception in autism spectrum disorder.

Park WJ, Schauder KB, Zhang R, Bennetto L, Tadin D

Scientific reports.. 2017 December 147 (1):17584. Epub 12/14/2017.

Larger Receptive Field Size as a Mechanism Underlying Atypical Motion Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Schauder KB, Park WJ, Tadin D, Bennetto L

Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.. 2017 September 5 (5):827-842. Epub 06/13/2017.

Auditory spatial attention to speech and complex non-speech sounds in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Soskey LN, Allen PD, Bennetto L

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research.. 2017 August 10 (8):1405-1416. Epub 04/01/2017.

I tawt i taw a puddy tat: Gestures in canary row narrations by high-functioning youth with autism spectrum disorder.

Silverman LB, Eigsti IM, Bennetto L

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research.. 2017 August 10 (8):1353-1363. Epub 04/01/2017.

Temporal synchrony and audiovisual integration of speech and object stimuli in autism.

Smith E, Zhang S, Bennetto L

Research in autism spectrum disorders.. 2017 July 39 :11-19. Epub 04/15/2017.

Children with autism spectrum disorder have reduced otoacoustic emissions at the 1 kHz mid-frequency region.

Bennetto L, Keith JM, Allen PD, Luebke AE

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research.. 2017 February 10 (2):337-345. Epub 07/12/2016.

Toward an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Sensory Dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Integration of the Neural and Symptom Literatures.

Schauder KB, Bennetto L

Frontiers in neuroscience.. 2016 10 :268. Epub 06/17/2016.

The relationship between contact and attitudes: Reducing prejudice toward individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Keith JM, Bennetto L, Rogge RD

Research in developmental disabilities.. 2015 December 47 :14-26. Epub 09/02/2015.

A strong interactive link between sensory discriminations and intelligence.

Melnick MD, Harrison BR, Park S, Bennetto L, Tadin D

Current biology : CB.. 2013 June 323 (11):1013-7. Epub 05/23/2013.

Speech-and-gesture integration in high functioning autism.

Silverman LB, Bennetto L, Campana E, Tanenhaus MK

Cognition.. 2010 June 115 (3):380-93. Epub 03/30/2010.

Grammaticality judgments in autism: deviance or delay.

Eigsti IM, Bennetto L

Journal of child language.. 2009 November 36 (5):999-1021. Epub 02/19/2009.

Reference production in young speakers with and without autism: effects of discourse status and processing constraints.

Arnold JE, Bennetto L, Diehl JJ

Cognition.. 2009 February 110 (2):131-46. Epub 12/25/2008.

Resolving ambiguity: a psycholinguistic approach to understanding prosody processing in high-functioning autism.

Diehl JJ, Bennetto L, Watson D, Gunlogson C, McDonough J

Brain and language.. 2008 August 106 (2):144-52. Epub 05/27/2008.

Olfaction and taste processing in autism.

Bennetto L, Kuschner ES, Hyman SL

Biological psychiatry.. 2007 November 162 (9):1015-21. Epub 06/18/2007.

Audiovisual speech integration and lipreading in autism.

Smith EG, Bennetto L

Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.. 2007 August 48 (8):813-21. Epub 1900 01 01.

Beyond pragmatics: morphosyntactic development in autism.

Eigsti IM, Bennetto L, Dadlani MB

Journal of autism and developmental disorders.. 2007 July 37 (6):1007-23. Epub 1900 01 01.

Patterns of nonverbal cognitive functioning in young children with autism spectrum disorders.

Kuschner ES, Bennetto L, Yost K

Journal of autism and developmental disorders.. 2007 May 37 (5):795-807. Epub 1900 01 01.

Story recall and narrative coherence of high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders.

Diehl JJ, Bennetto L, Young EC

Journal of abnormal child psychology.. 2006 February 34 (1):87-102. Epub 1900 01 01.

The use of two language tests to identify pragmatic language problems in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Young EC, Diehl JJ, Morris D, Hyman SL, Bennetto L

Language, speech, and hearing services in schools.. 2005 January 36 (1):62-72. Epub 1900 01 01.

Profile of cognitive functioning in women with the fragile X mutation.

Bennetto L, Pennington BF, Porter D, Taylor AK, Hagerman RJ

Neuropsychology.. 2001 April 15 (2):290-9. Epub 1900 01 01.

Imitation and pantomime in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

Rogers SJ, Bennetto L, McEvoy R, Pennington BF

Child development.. 1996 October 67 (5):2060-73. Epub 1900 01 01.

Molecular/clinical correlations in females with fragile X.

Sobesky WE, Taylor AK, Pennington BF, Bennetto L, Porter D, Riddle J, Hagerman RJ

American journal of medical genetics.. 1996 August 964 (2):340-5. Epub 1900 01 01.

Intact and impaired memory functions in autism.

Bennetto L, Pennington BF, Rogers SJ

Child development.. 1996 August 67 (4):1816-35. Epub 1900 01 01.