Kathryn Unruh, Ph.D

Kathryn Unruh completed her Ph.D. in systems neuroscience at Vanderbilt University in 2017, where she combined behavioral, eye-tracking, and EEG methodologies to study the intersection of reward and restricted interests in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She is currently is a postdoctoral fellow through the Life Span Institute and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART). Dr. Unruh is interested in using systems neuroscience approaches to understand the neural mechanisms of motor- and sensory-related behavioral alterations in autism spectrum and related neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD/NDD). During her time as a postdoc, she is interested in developing studies to identify distinct neural correlates of higher order repetitive behavior in ASD through characterization of deficits in performance on tests of motor ability and by combining multiple functional imaging approaches, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Dr. Unruh’s training is funded through a TL1 Postdoctoral Trainee Fellowship through a CTSA grant from NCATS awarded to the University of Kansas for Frontiers: University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute # TL1TR002368.