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. In her graduate studies, she used neuroimaging and psychophysics approaches to study how autistic individuals sense information from their bodies, known as interoception. During her postdoctoral fellowship, she is working on two key extensions to her graduate work: i) studying how interoception of the gut and stomach relates to gastrointestinal issues and ii) adapting sensory paradigms to expand inclusion of individuals with limited language in this area of research. Ultimately, she hopes that her research will have translational potential to better support individuals who experience sensory processing difficulties. Her long-term research interests include studying how different patterns of sensory processing relate to physical and mental health in autistic individuals.