 Her key scientific discoveries include demonstrating that maternal depression can influence early brain activity and stress responses of infants and children, the detection of autism symptoms in infants, empirical validation of autistic regression, and elucidation of the nature of early brain dysfunction in autism.Dawson pioneered the use of home videotapes to study early symptoms of autism and the use of electrophysiological techniques to study brain function in very young children with autism.Dawson's lab at the University of Washington discovered differences in brain circuitry related to face processing in autism, apparent even before symptom onset, and defined a lifelong brain characteristic (delayed N170 face-sensitive ERP) that was accepted in the FDA's Biomarker Qualification Program.