Mission & Background

Mission

The mission of the Sensory Inputs Lab (InPuts lab for short) is to investigate how our brain processes sensory information, how cortical processes relate to our behavioural perception of sensations, and how this leads to our externalized behaviours, and daily life experiences, in typical and atypical development. We have a specific focus on neurodevelopmental conditions. The ultimate aim of this work is to identify specific sensory differences that may lead to better understadng of neurodevelopmental conditions and subsequent biomarker development.

Background

Individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. Autism) often have sensory features (e.g. >95% in Autism). We know that touch, audition, and vision, play an extremely important role in early development and are a driving force behind the formation of social and communicative skills, and mental health. However, the underlying physiology of touch perception in Autism and other conditions is not well known. Furthermore, we don’t know how differences in sensory processing link to clinical manifestations of these conditions. Prior work has studied sensory processing as a whole whereas our focus lies on very specific aspects of touch perception (e.g. detection, or discrimination). Our findings suggest that Autism and ADHD show specific tactile differences that are uniquely linked to their clinical signature. We have a better and better understanding how these alterations in touch perception occur, as they are linked to developmental differences in excitation-inhibition balance. Furthermore, they relate to clinical features of neurodevelopment. This way, we may be able to develop biomarkers for early diagnosis, or for predicting intervention, or support response, with potential cascading effects on wellbeing. We are also interested in examining these relationships in a neurotypical population.

We use a combination of a) Behavioral Psychophysics and other cognitive tasks to objectively assess low-level perception b) MRI approaches (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in particular but also EEG and fMRI), c) Clinical qualitative approaches d) genetic measures and d) Lived experience research.

As a group, we strongly believe in creating an inclusive and welcome environment for everyone. We have a strong belief in open and transparent science.