Dr. Nico Bast
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy
Deutschordenstrasse 50
60528 Frankfurt am Main
+49 (0)69 6301 6223
E-Mail: nico.bast@kgu.de
Scientific Focus
My research focus is on neurodevelopmental disorders. We utilize eye-tracking to assess preschoolers up to adolescents in naturalistic paradigms.
We investigate pupillometry and oculomotor function as potential biomarkers and indicators of functional neural networks.
Methods
eye-tracking, pupillometry, computer vision, clinical trials, neurocognitive paradigms, ecologically valid designs
Selected Publications
Bast, N., Mason, L., Ecker, C., Baumeister, S., Banaschewski, T., Jones, EJH., Murphy, D.G.M., Buitelaar, J.K., Loth, E., Pandina, G., the EU-AIMS LEAP Group & Freitag, C.M. (2023). Sensory salience processing moderates attenuated gazes on faces in autism spectrum disorder: a case–control study. Molecular Autism, (14)5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-023-00537-6
Bast, N., Boxhoorn, S., Supér, H., Helfer, B., Polzer, L., Klein, C., Cholemkery, H., & Freitag, C. M. (2023). Atypical Arousal Regulation in Children With Autism but Not With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as Indicated by Pupillometric Measures of Locus Coeruleus Activity. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging., 8(1), 11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.04.010
Polzer, L., Freitag, C. M., & Bast, N. (2022). Pupillometric measures of altered stimulus-evoked locus coeruleus-norepinephrine activity explain attenuated social attention in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 15(11), 2167-2180. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2818
Bast, N., Mason, L., Freitag, C. M., Smith, T., Portugal, A. M., Poustka, L., Banaschewski, T., Johnson, M., & The EU-AIMS LEAP Group. (2020). Saccade dysmetria indicates attenuated visual exploration in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi:10.1111/jcpp.13267
Boxhoorn, S., Bast, N., Supèr, H., Polzer, L., Cholemkery, H., & Freitag, C. M. (2020). Pupil dilation during visuospatial orienting differentiates between autism spectrum disorder and attention‐deficit/hyperactivitydisorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(5), 614-624. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13179