Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding the Female Phenotype

Luigi Mazzone, MD, PhD, Full Professor in Child Neuropsychiatry. He is currently the Chief of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division and the Director of the Medical Residency School of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. Several are the international fellowships he experienced during his academic career: the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, MD, USA; the Pediatric Brain Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University, NY, USA. Luigi Mazzone has focused his research and clinical activity both on the study of neurobiological substrates and on the characterization of the clinical phenotype of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. To date, he has published more than 150 articles in peer reviewed international scientific journals. He has already published with Springer the volume “Psychiatric Symptoms and Comorbidities in Autism Spectrum Disorder” in 2016.

Martina Siracusano , MD, PhD, is currently a Clinical Researcher at the Department of Biomedicine and Prevention of the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) and carries out her main clinical activity in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division of the Rome Tor Vergata University Hospital. Her primary research and clinical topic of interest is on autism spectrum disorder (early diagnosis, identification of biomarkers, medical comorbidities, genetic syndromes). She is actually involved in several research projects granted by the Italian National Health System focused on these themes.

Kevin Pelphrey , a neuroscientist and expert on child brain development, is the Harrison-Wood Professor of Neurology at the University of Virginia, USA. As a cognitive neuroscientist, his research investigates the brain basis of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. His multidisciplinary team seeks to understand the causes of autism to help get the right treatment to the right individual at the right time. Kevin is the Principal Investigator of the NIH Autism Center for Excellence—Neurogenetics of Females with Autism Network. His contributions to science have been recognized by receipt of a NIH Scientist Career Development Award, the John Merck Scholars Award, the Microsoft Corporation’s Breakthrough Award, and the American Psychological Association's Boyd McCandless Award for distinguished early career theoretical contributions to Developmental Psychology. As a father and advocate, he serves by appointment of the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services as a member of the Federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, USA.