Seminars in Biomedical Engineering

Speaker: Dr Margaret Kjelgaard
Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Bridgewater State University, MA, USA

November 10^th, 2026 | 11:00 am 
DEIB, “A. Alario” Seminar Room (Bld. 21)
On line by Webex

Contact: Proff.  Riccardo Barbieri,  Monica Soncini

Abstract

On November 10^th, 2026 at 11:00 am, in the framework of the of Biomedical Engineering PhD Course, will be held a seminar on "The Theory of Predictive Challenges in Autism and Evidence from Habituation" in DEIB  “Alessandra Alario” Seminar Room (Building 21). On line by Webex.

Autism as a clinical condition is highly complex in its presentation. There are challenges in social dynamics, language abilities, sensory and motor difficulties, and an insistence on sameness. These disparate features of autism led to many theories of autism that focused on one feature (e.g., Theory of Mind) while ignoring many of the other, highly challenging issues (e.g., sensory hypersensitivities). The predictive theory of autism argues that an underlying cognitive difference in prediction can explain all challenges for autistic individuals. I will review the theory (Sinha et al., 2014), provide evidence in support of the theory using habituation paradigms and suggest the use of habituation as a potential outcome measure for a sensory intervention.

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Short Bio

Dr Kjelgaard received her PhD in psychology at Northeastern University in Boston with an emphasis on psycholinguistics. As a post-doc, she shifted toward clinical research with an interest in autism and language challenges. More recently her interests focus on the overarching challenges for autistic individuals, especially sensory and motor challenges. In collaboration with colleagues at MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, she has contributed to the theoretical and empirical investigations of autism as a difference in predictive abilities. Currently, she is interested in developing interventions that might support autistic individuals to improve their quality of life. Dr Kjelgaard is a tenured, associate professor in Communication Sciences at Disorders and the Director of the Center for Educational Neuroscience Applications at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, USA.