Tanya Procyshyn – originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba – is a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre. She began this work in 2017 after being awarded a prestigious and competitive Autism Research Centre Doctoral Fellowship and a Cambridge Trust Scholarship.
Tanya’s doctoral studies follow research she conducted on the effects of hormones and hormone-related genetic variants on human social behaviour as part of her master’s degree in Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Tanya’s work has been published in many behavioural neuroendocrinology and social neuroscience journals, with five papers being published during her MSc work alone.
Tanya is conducting cutting edge research integrating neuroendocrine and neuroimaging datasets in autism, which will deliver important implications for the understanding of the neurobiology of autism. She is specifically exploring the role that oxytocin – a hormone with essential roles in motherhood and, more generally, social bonding – can play in enhancing social functioning among people with autism spectrum conditions. By conducting a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Tanya is testing the hypotheses that oxytocin enhances social functioning (i) via effects on the brain’s reward system; (ii) by reducing social anxiety; or (iii) by increasing empathy.
This work is of particular note because it involves research with 45 women, a segment of whom have an autism diagnosis, and women with autism are an understudied population. The implication is that Tanya’s study is the largest study to date that tests the effects of oxytocin on brain activation in autistic women.
Tanya continues to maintain strong connections with Canada and is interested in leveraging the expertise she has gained and continues to gain at Cambridge to start a research lab upon return to Canada. She is interested in promoting the use of best methods from neuroscience, endocrinology, and genetics to study the biological basis of psychiatric conditions such as autism and evaluate potential treatments – with the possibility of improving the quality of life for thousands of Canadians with autism, as well as the quality of life of their families.
