The Social and Cognitive Stimulation Lab team consists of an interdisciplinary, collaborative group of researchers investigating how to improve interventions for social communication and social cognition for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Joan Esse Wilson, Ph.D. CCC-SLP
Dr. Esse Wilson received her Ph.D. in Linguistics with a concentration in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of New Mexico. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the NMSU Department of Communication Disorders. Her research involves investigating interventions for social communication and social cognition with individuals with social communication challenges, including the use of transcranial direct current stimulation with behavioral measures for empathy, emotion verbal fluency, and facial emotion recognition. Additionally, she has more than 15 years of experience practicing as an early intervention and school-based speech-language pathologist.
Claudia Tesche, Ph.D.
Dr. Tesche received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by ten years as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory in Yorktown Heights, NY. Her research interests included the optimization of Superconducting Quantum Intereference Device (SQUID) magnetic sensors with applications in the foundations of quantum mechanics and the imaging of neuronal activity in the brain. She initiated a joint project between IBM and the Helsinki University of Technology to develop multichannel DC SQUID-based magnetoencephalographic (MEG) arrays. She joined the Department of Psychology at the University of New Mexico as Professor in 2000. I am presently serving as the Director of the Transcranial Stimulation Laboratory. Her present research interests include MEG characterization of network dynamics in adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to enhance social skills in adults and older adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the utilization of MEG to characterize the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on brain dynamics.
Tianna Zambrano, M.A., CCC-SLP
Tianna Zambrano is an early intervention and rehabilitation speech-language pathologist in Silver City, NM. She is the co-founder of ZOWN Communication, which is supported by NMSU's Arrowhead Center. A graduate from NMSU's Department of Communication Disorders, her research interests focus on the use of augmentative and alternative communication devices by children with complex communication needs.
Collaborators
Phone: (505) 750-0845 Email: SocialSkillStudy@gmail.com