Research areas
Biological, Psychological and Social Signatures of Mental Health
Technology Development and Knowledge Transfer
Treatment and Rehabilitation adapted to Populations
Academic profile
Head of the Marcel & Rolande Gosselin Research Chair in Autism Cognitive Neuroscience of the Universite de Montreal
Tenured professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Montreal and National Researcher, FRSQ.
Scientific Director of the Centre for Excellent in Pervasive and Developmental Problems at University of Montreal (CETEDUM)
Responsible for the Specialized Clinic on Autism, Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital
Medical Director of the Autism Program - Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital
Dr. Mottron is one the creative contributors of the Neurodevelopmental Problems Program at HRDP dedicated specifically to pervasive and developmental problems. He boasts over a hundred scientific publications and has delivered nearly 250 conferences around the world.
Research Interests
- Neuropsychology of pervasive and developmental problems in the following sectors: perception of complex visual and auditory stimuli, working memory and long-term memory, calculation, attention, and intelligence profiles.
- Developmental transformation of autistic signs ; sub-grouping human models of pervasive and developmental problems ; brain plasticity in pervasive and developmental problems ; cerebral localization in autism ; pervasive and developmental problems in identified neurological syndromes (visual agnosia, herpex simplex encephalitis, West syndrome); cognitive deficits; Savant-syndrome; precocious signs in pervasive and developmental disorders.
Recents Publications
Fassio, A., Patry, L., Congia, S., Onofri, F., Piton, A., Gauthier,
J., Pozzi, D., Messa, M., Defranchi, E., Fadda, M., Corradi, A.,
Baldelli, P., Lapointe, L., St-Onge, J., Meloche, C., Mottron, L., Valtorta, F., Nguyen, D. K., Rouleau, G. A., Benfenati, F., Cossette, P. (2011). SYN1 loss-of-function mutations in ASD and partial epilepsy cause impaired synaptic function. Human molecular genetics, 20(12), 2297-2307. Pubmed
Gauthier, J., Siddiqui, T. J., Huashan, P., Yokomaku, D., Hamdan, F.
F., Champagne, N., Lapointe, M., Spiegelman, D., Noreau, A., Lafreniere,
R. G., Fathalli, F., Joober, R., Krebs, M. O., Delisi, L. E., Mottron, L.,
Fombonne, E., Michaud, J. L., Drapeau, P., Carbonetto, S., Craig, A.
M., Rouleau, G. A. (2011). Truncating mutations in NRXN2 and NRXN1 in
autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. Human genetics, 130(4), 563-573. Pubmed
Greffou, S., Bertone, A., Hahler, E. M., Hanssens, J. M., Mottron, L., & Faubert, J. (2011). Postural Hypo-Reactivity in Autism is Contingent on Development and Visual Environment: A Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Study. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. Pubmed
Keita, L., Mottron, L.,
Dawson, M., & Bertone, A. (2011). Atypical Lateral Connectivity: A
Neural Basis for Altered Visuospatial Processing in Autism. Biological psychiatry, 70(9), 806-811. Pubmed
Mottron, L. (2011). Changing perceptions: The power of autism. Nature, 479(7371), 33-35. Pubmed
Hamdan, F. F., Daoud, H., Piton, A., Gauthier, J., Dobrzeniecka, S., Krebs, M. O., Joober, R., Lacaille, J. C., Nadeau, A., Milunsky, J. M., Wang, Z., Carmant, L., Mottron, L., Beauchamp, M. H., Rouleau, G. A., Michaud, J. L. (2011). De Novo SYNGAP1 Mutations in Nonsyndromic Intellectual Disability and Autism. Biological psychiatry, 69(9), 898-901. Pubmed
Hamdan, F. F., Gauthier, J., Dobrzeniecka, S., Lortie, A., Mottron, L., Vanasse, M., D'Anjou, G., Lacaille, J. C., Rouleau, G. A., Michaud, J. L. (2011). Intellectual disability without epilepsy associated with STXBP1 disruption. European journal of human genetics : EJHG, 19(5), 607-609. Pubmed
Perreault, A., Gurnsey, R., Dawson, M., Mottron, L., & Bertone, A. (2011). Increased Sensitivity to Mirror Symmetry in Autism. Plos One, 6(4). Pubmed
Samson, F., Mottron, L., Soulieres, I., & Zeffiro, T. A. (2011). Enhanced visual functioning in autism: An ALE meta-analysis. Human brain mapping. Pubmed
Soulieres, I., Zeffiro, T. A., Girard, M. L., & Mottron, L. (2011). Enhanced mental image mapping in autism. Neuropsychologia, 49(5), 848-857. Pubmed
Soulieres, I., Dawson, M., Gernsbacher, M. A., & Mottron, L. (2011). The Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence II: What about Asperger Syndrome? PLoS One, 6(9), e25372. Pubmed
Hamdan, F. F., Daoud, H., Rochefort, D., Piton, A., Gauthier, J., Langlois, M., … Mottron, L.et al. (2010). De Novo Mutations in FOXP1 in Cases with Intellectual Disability, Autism, and Language Impairment. American journal of human genetics, 87(5), 671-678. Pubmed
Keita, L., Mottron, L., & Bertone, A. (2010). Far visual acuity is unremarkable in autism: Do we need to focus on crowding? Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research. Pubmed
Awadalla, P., Gauthier, J., Myers, R. A., Casals, F., Hamdan, F. F., Griffing, A. R., Côté, M., Henrion, E., Spiegelman, D., Tarabeux, J., Piton, A., Yang, Y., Boyko, A., Bustamante, C., Xiong, L., Rapoport, J.L., Addington, A.M., Delisi, J.L., Krebs, M.O., Joober, R., Millet, B., Fombonne, E., Mottron, L., Zilversmit, M., Keebler, J., Daoud, H., Marineau, C., Roy-Gagnon, M.H., Dubé, M.P., Eyre-Walker, A., Drapeau, P., Stone, E.A., Lafrenière, R.G., Rouleau, G.A. (2010). Direct Measure of the De Novo Mutation Rate in Autism and Schizophrenia Cohorts. American journal of human genetics. 87(3), 316-324. Pubmed
Jemel, B., Mimeault, D., Saint-Amour, D., Hosein, A., & Mottron, L. (2010). VEP contrast sensitivity responses reveal reduced functional segregation of mid and high filters of visual channels in Autism. Journal of Vision, 10(6) 13.
Mottron, L. (2010). Que fait-on de l'intelligence autistique? Enfance, 62(1), 45-57. Abstract
Soulieres, I., Hubert, B., Rouleau, N., Gagnon, L., Tremblay, P., Seron, X., Mottron, L.,. (2010). Superior estimation abilities in two autistic spectrum children. Cognitive neuropsychology, 27(3), 261-276. Pubmed
Mitchell, P., Mottron, L., Soulieres, I., & Ropar, D. (2010). Susceptibility to the Shepard illusion in participants with autism: reduced top-down influences within perception? Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 3(3), 113-119. Pubmed
Piton, A., Gauthier, J., Hamdan, F. F., Lafreniere, R. G., Yang, Y., Henrion, E., Mottron, L., et al. (2010). Systematic resequencing of X-chromosome synaptic genes in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Molecular psychiatry. 16(8), 867-880. Pubmed
Soulieres, I., Mottron, L., Giguere, G., & Larochelle, S. (2010). Category induction in autism: Slower, perhaps different, but certainly possible. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 1-17. Pubmed
Tarabeux, J., Champagne, N., Brustein, E., Hamdan, F. F., Gauthier, J., Lapointe, M.,… Mottron, L., et al. (2010). De novo truncating mutation in kinesin 17 associated with schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 68(7), 649-656.
Bonnel, A., McAdams, S., Smith, B., Berthiaume, C., Bertone, A., Ciocca, V., Burack, J.A., Mottron, L., et al. (2010). Enhanced pure-tone pitch discrimination among persons with autism but not Asperger syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 48(9), 2465-2475. Pubmed
Barbeau EB, Mendrek A, Mottron L. (2009) Are autistic traits autistic? British Journal of Psychology. Feb;100:23-8.
Gauthier J, Spiegelman D, Piton A, Lafreniere RG, Laurent S, St-Onge J, Mottron L. et coll. (2009) Novel De Novo SHANK3 Mutation in Autistic Patients. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B-Neuropsychiatric Genetics. Apr;150B(3):421-4.
Hamdan, F., Piton, A., Gauthier, J., Lortie, A., Dubeau, F., Dobrzeniecka, S., Mottron, L., et al. (2009). De novo STXBP1 mutations in mental retardation and nonsyndromic epilepsy. Annals of Neurology, 65(6), 748-753. Pubmed
Hamdan FF, Gauthier J, Spiegelman D, Noreau A, Yang Y, Pellerin S, Mottron L. et coll. (2009) Mutations in SYNGAP1 in Autosomal nonsyndromic Mental Retardation. New England Journal of Medicine. Feb;360(6):599-605.
Hamdan, F., Gauthier, J., Pellerin, S., Dobrzeniecka, S., Marineau, C., Fombonne E., Mottron, L., et al. (2009). No association between SRGAP3/MEGAP haploinsufficiency and mental retardation. Archives of Neurology, 66(5), 675-676.
Pubmed
Hyde, K., Samson, F., Evans, A., & Mottron, L. (2009). Neuroanatomical differences in brain areas implicated in perceptual and other core features of autism revealed by cortical thickness analysis and voxel-based morphometry. Human Brain Mapping, 31(4), 556-566. - Pubmed
Mottron L, Dawson M, Soulières I. (2009). Enhanced perception in savant syndrome: patterns, structure and creativity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B Biological Sciences, 364(1522), 1385-1391.
Piton, A., Michaud, J., Peng, H., Aradhya, S., Gauthier, J., Mottron, L., et al. (2009). Mutations in the calcium-related gene IL1RAPL1 are associated with autism. Human Molecular Genetics, 17(24), 3965-3974. Pubmed
Soulières I, D. M., Samson F, Barbeau EB, Sahyoun CP, Strangman GE, Zeffiro TA, Mottron L. (2009). Enhanced visual processing contributes to matrix reasoning in autism. Human Brain Mapping, 30(12), 4082-4107.
Weiss, L. A., Arking, D. E., Daly, M. J., & Chakravarti, A., L. Mottron (2009). A genome-wide linkage and association scan reveals novel loci for autism. Nature, 461(7265), 802-808. Pubmed
Amiet C, Gourfinkel-An I, Bouzamondo A, Tordjman S, Baulac M, Lechat P, Mottron L. et coll. Epilepsy in autism is associated with intellectual disability and gender: Evidence from a meta-analysis. (2008) Biological Psychiatry. Oct;64(7):577-82.
Bonnel AC, McAdams S, Smith BK, Bertone A, Burack JA, Ciocca V, Mottron L.(2008) "Low Level Auditory Processing of Simple and Complex Sounds in Autism" J Acoust Soc Am. 123(5):3564.
Daoust AM, Lusignan FA, Braun CMJ, Mottron L., Godbout R. Dream content analysis in persons with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2008 Apr;38(4):634-43.
Daoust AM, Lusignan FA, Braun CMJ, Mottron L., Godbout R. (2008) EEG correlates of emotions in dream narratives from typical young adults and individuals with autistic spectrum disorders. Psychophysiology. Mar;45(2):299-308.
Dawson M, Soulières I, Gernsbacher MA, Mottron L. (2007) "The Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence" Psychol Sci. 18(8):657-62.
Mottron L, Mineau S, Martel G, Bernier CS, Berthiaume C, Dawson M, Lemay M, Palardy S, Charman T, Faubert J. (2007) "Lateral Glances Toward Moving Stimuli Among Young Children with Autism: Early Regulation of Locally Oriented Perception?" Dev Psychopathol. 19(1):23-36.
Gras-Vincendon, A., Mottron, L., Salame, P., Bursztejn, C., & Danion, J. M. (2007). Temporal context memory in high-functioning autism. Autism, 11(6), 523-534.
Soulières I, Mottron L, Saumier D, Larochelle S. (2007) "Atypical Categorical Perception in Autism: Autonomy of Discrimination?" J Autism Dev Disord. 37(3):481-90.
Caron MJ, Mottron L, Berthiaume C, Dawson M. (2006) "Cognitive Mechanisms, Specificity and Neural Underpinnings of Visuospatial Peaks in Autism". Brain 129(Pt 7):1789-802.
Lahaie A, Mottron L, Arguin M, Berthiaume C, Jemel B, Saumier D (2006) "Face Perception in High-Functioning Autistic Adults: Evidence for Superior Processing of Face Parts, not for a Configural Face-Processing Deficit" Neuropsychology 20(1):30-41.
Mottron L, Dawson M, Soulières I, Hubert B, Burack J. (2006) "Enhanced Perceptual Functioning in Autism: An Update, and Eight Principles of Autistic Perception". J Autism Dev Disord 36(1):27-43. Review.
Gauthier J, Joober R, Dubé MP, St-Onge J, Bonnel A, Gariépy D, Laurent S, Najafee R, Lacasse H, St-Charles L, Fombonne E, Mottron L, Rouleau GA. (2006) "Autism Spectrum Disorders Associated with X Chromosome Markers in French-Canadian Males." Mol Psychiatry 11(2):206-13.
Book
Mottron, L. (2004). L'autisme, une autre intelligence, Bruxelles, Mardaga.