8/26/25 Rachael A. Muscatello: Pubertal Development, Physical Health, and Cardiovascular Autonomic Function in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Clinical brown bag
Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Division of Psychology
Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Time: 12:00- 1:00pm
Location: 316 Wilson Hall
Pubertal Development, Physical Health, and Cardiovascular Autonomic Function in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is a highly coordinated system responsible for regulating involuntary physiological processes, such as heart rate, and the function of its systems may act as objective physiological markers of internal psychological states. For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), understanding differences in autonomic function may offer unique insight into the physiological influence on behavior. Moreover, the interplay between the ANS and physical health establishes a need to examine cardiovascular autonomic functioning in youth with and without ASD over development. Ongoing comprehensive studies continue to identify physiological differences between youth with and without ASD, with a growing emphasis on the need to focus on individual traits such as BMI and medication use to elucidate the extent to which autonomic differences are related to health status, irrespective of diagnostic category, across the lifespan.