Jason Griffin is a 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston, US.
Griffin received an undergraduate degree from California State University Channel Islands and a PhD from Pennsylvania State University. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, he started his laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston in 2024. His research investigates the visual and neural mechanisms that underlie social perception in individuals with autism.
Griffin’s award-winning NOMIS & Science essay is “Eyes are windows to the brain: Capturing eye movements to better understand face processing in autism.”
Abstract
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition where individuals commonly have reduced eye contact and spend less time looking at faces, which often affects how children with autism process face information. My goal has been to leverage innovative technology to understand the malleability and complexity of how children with autism look at faces. I have found that face processing can improve in autism through use of video game technology and that the complexity of eye movements can be captured with machine learning. This research demonstrates that while children with autism process facial information differently, aspects like the interpretation of information from the eyes can be enhanced through digital interventions, and unique eye movement patterns can be decoded with machine learning, which could unlock new areas for autism research.