Helen Tager-Flusberg

Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Boston University and the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).^[1] She is the Director of the BU Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program.^[2]

Personal life and education

Tager-Flusberg was born in England;^[3] her father was the businessman Osias Tager.^[4] She received her Bachelor's Degree from the University College London in psychology.^[5] She moved to the US in the 1970s^[3] and obtained her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University in 1978.^[1] Her dissertation "investigated whether children with autism understand syntax, or the grammatical rules of language".^[3]

She was a professor at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) until 2001, and between 1996 and 2001, she was a Senior Scientist at the UMass Medical Center.^[5] She has been at Boston University since 2001.^[5]

Career

Her research interests are in autism, Williams syndrome,^[1] Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and specific language impairment, which she has researched since the late 70s.^[5]

Appointments

Tager-Flusberg is President of the International Society for Autism Research,^[3] and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Autism Speaks.^[6]

She is on the editorial boards of Autism, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and Autism Research;^[6] and an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Psychology^[6] and the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.^[5]

Recognition and other achievements

Ken Wexler, a professor of cognitive science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "If you asked somebody, 'Who are the famous people studying language in autism?' she's the first name to come to mind."^[3]

Selected publications

As of 2012, Tager-Flusberg had edited four books and published more than 170 journal articles and individual chapters in books;^[5] some of her books are:

• Tager-Flusberg, Helen (2005). Autism And Williams Syndrome. Essays in Developmental Psychology. UK: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1841690087. 
• Tager-Flusberg, Helen (1993). Constraints on Language Acquisition: Studies of Atypical Children. L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 978-0805806670. 
• Tager-Flusberg, Helen (1999). Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. A Bradford Book. ISBN 978-0262201162. 
• Baron-Cohen, Simon; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Cohen, Donald J., ed. (2000). Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198524465. 
• Cohen, Donald J.; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Tager-Flusberg, Helen, ed. (1994). Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Autism. Oxford Medical Publications. ISBN 978-0192620569. 

References