Dr. Alisa Zoltowski

Alisa Zoltowski is a postdoctoral fellow working in the Laboratory of Affective Sensory Research. She received her B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN) from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University, advised by Dr. Cascio. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Autism Research on a variety of projects to better understand and support autistic individuals. In her graduate studies, she used neuroimaging and psychophysics approaches to study sensory processing in autism, with a focus on sensory information about bodily state (interoception). Her long-term research interests include studying how different patterns of sensory processing relate to physical and mental health in autistic individuals.

During her postdoctoral fellowship, she is working on two key extensions to her graduate work: i) the study of sensory brain region development in infants and ii) adapting sensory paradigms to expand inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities in this area of research. Ultimately, she hopes that her research will have translational potential to better support individuals who experience sensory processing difficulties.