Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D.

Dr. Susan Bookheimer is the Joaquin M. Fuster Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is a clinical neuropsychologist with a broad interest in the study of human cognition in relation to brain structure, function, and pathology, and her experimental expertise includes structural and functional MRI (fMRI), positron emission tomography, and intraoperative electrocortical stimulation mapping, as well as classical neuropsychological approaches. She has special interests in epilepsy, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease. Her recent work focuses on understanding the neural basis of social communication deficits in autism using fMRI, encompassing both verbal and nonverbal communication, and focusing on emotional aspects of social comprehension. Dr. Bookheimer serves as the principal investigator of the UCLA Autism Center of Excellence grant, with UCLA being one of the only centers for three consecutive grant cycles due to its scientific excellence. She also serves as the principal investigator at the UCLA Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. She has published more than 215 articles in the field of neurological and neurodevelopmental disabilities and has been a leader in the field of autism neuroimaging.