Termara Parker

Termara graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. in Biology from Howard University. For her honors thesis, she explored the neurophysiological consequences of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) on the fetal macaque brain under the direct supervision of Dr. Mark Burke. During her undergraduate summers, Termara conducted research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and used various neuroimaging techniques to study the morphological and functional differences between the brains of autistic and neurotypical individuals. She was also involved in a project in Dr. Eva Ratai’s laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital testing whether the balance of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters is altered in the autistic brain. Currently, Termara is examining the neural mechanisms of social interaction in autistic individuals using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and eye-tracking.