Gary E. Martin

Current/Recent Grants:

A Family-Genetic Study of Autism and Fragile X Syndrome 2R01MH091131-06A1 (PI: Losh, M.) 09/23/19 – 07/31/24 National Institute of Mental Health
Role: Consultant
Abstract: This project builds on three extremely rich existing phenotypic datasets from individuals with the FMR1 premutation and their children with FXS, and parallel data collected from ASD families, to identify key pragmatic and prosodic, neural, and molecular-genetic markers in individuals with the premutation and FXS. This study will investigate whether there may be specific pragmatic/prosodic and neural signatures associated with ASD-risk in these individuals, which can be linked to the FMR1 gene. This research takes an important step toward pinpointing different neurobiological and molecular-genetic factors associated with ASD-specific features, and for understanding gene-brain-behavior links to develop targeted interventions

Novel Computational Analysis of Prosody in ASD and the Broad Autism Phenotype1R03DC018644-01 (PI: Losh, M.) 4/1/20 – 3/31/22                            
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Role: Consultant
Abstract: An important feature of the language impairments in ASD includes impairments in the rhythmic and intonational features of language used to convey intention and emotions, and that are essential for establishing connections with social partners. Subtle differences in these language features have been observed among clinically unaffected relatives as well, and might serve as subclinical markers of genetic risk to ASD. This project aims to provide clinically and biologically meaningful measures of such language differences, using state-of-the-art computational modeling of social language characteristics in ASD, to inform clinical assessment, treatment, and biological studies of ASD.

A Family-Genetic Study of Language in Autism 
5R01DC010191-08 (PI: Losh, M.) 9/20/16 – 8/31/21
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Role: Consultant
Abstract: This project investigates multigenerational developmental, behavioral, and neural markers of risk to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and molecular genetic correlates. This research takes an important step toward pinpointing different neurobiological and molecular-genetic factors associated with the social-communicative impairments in ASD in particular, and with ASD risk more generally, with key implications for better understanding of etiology and the development of targeted interventions.

Girls with Intellectual Disability: Communication Skills in an Underrepresented Research Population
05/01/18 – 05/01/19 (data analysis ongoing)
The Richard and Camille Sinatra Endowment Fund (Internal)
Role: Principal Investigator
Abstract: The research literature contains much information on communication in boys with intellectual disability (ID). However, the communication skills of girls have been largely unexplored. This project examines communication in girls with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of ID and genetic cause of autism, including sex differences with a male group. This study takes advantage of video-taped language samples from a completed NIH-funded project, implementing a dynamic observational coding system for sequential analysis.

Speech of Young Males with Fragile X Syndrome
1R01HD044935-06 (PI: Zajac, D.) 07/01/08 – 06/30/14 (data analysis ongoing)
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Role: Investigator
Abstract: This study compares segmental and prosody/voice features and speech intelligibility and aims to identify potential mechanisms underlying individual differences in speech intelligibility of boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), Down syndrome, and typical development to determine whether individual differences in speech production relate to FXS specifically or to intellectual disability in general.

Pragmatic Skills of Young Males and Females with Fragile X Syndrome2R01HD038819-07 (PI: Martin, G.) 05/01/07 – 04/30/14 (data analysis ongoing)
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Role: Principal Investigator (11/29/10 – 4/30/14)
Abstract: This study compares the developmental trajectories of pragmatic skills, the use of language in social contexts, among girls and boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), Down syndrome, and typical development, and boys with idiopathic autism spectrum disorder to determine whether individual differences in conversational discourse and narrative skills relate to FXS specifically or to either intellectual disability or autism in general.

An Investigation of the Overlap of Autism and Fragile X Syndrome: Insights from Language Prosody
1R03DC010880-01 (PI: Martin, G.) 09/01/10 – 08/31/13 (data analysis ongoing)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Role: Principal Investigator
Abstract: This study compares boys with fragile X syndrome with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), boys with ASD only, and typically developing boys to identify profiles of language prosody that overlap in autism and FXS or are specific to autism, and also examines concordance between rater judgments and objective quantitative indices of prosody.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Martin, G.E., Lee, M., Bicknell, K., Goodkind, A., Maltman, N., & Losh, M (2023). A longitudinal investigation of pragmatic language across contexts in autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. Frontiers in Neurology, 14:1155691. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1155691

Patel, S.P., Landau, E., Martin, G.E., Rayburn, C., Elahi, S., Dillman, G., & Losh, M. (2023). A profile of prosodic speech differences in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and first-degree relatives. Journal of Communication Disorders, 102, 106313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106313

Guilfoyle, J., Winston, M., Nayar, K., Bush, L., Sideris, J., Martin, G.E., Wassink, T., Losh, M. (2022). Childhood academic performance profiles: A potential marker of genetic liability to autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05459-5

Lau, J.C.Y., Patel, S., Kang, X., Nayar, K., Martin, G.E., Choy, J., Wong, P.C.M., & Losh, M. (2022). Cross-linguistic patterns of impaired speech prosody in autism: A machine learning study. PLoS ONE 17(6): e0269637. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269637

Patel, S.P., Winston, M., Guilfoyle, J., Nicol, T., Martin, G.E., Kraus, N., & Losh, M. (2022). Neural processing of speech sounds in ASD and first-degree relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05562-7 

Bush, L., Martin, G.E., Landau, E., & Losh, M. (2021). A longitudinal study of parent-child interactions and language outcomes in fragile X syndrome and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12: 718572. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.718572.

Maltman, N., Guilfoyle, J., Nayar, K., Martin, G.E., Winston, M., Lau, J.C.Y., Bush, L., Patel, S., Lee, M., Sideris, J., Hall, D., Zhou, L., Sharp, K., Berry-Kravis, E., & Losh, M. (2021). The phenotypic profile associated with the FMR1 premutation in women: An investigation of clinical-behavioral, social-cognitive, and executive abilities. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12: 718485. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.718485.

Wheeler, A.C., Gwaltney, A., Raspa, M., Okoniewski, K.C., Berry-Kravis, E., Botteron, K.N., Budimirovic, D., Hazlett, H.C., Hessl, D., Losh, M., Martin, G.E., Rivera, S.M., Roberts, J.E., & Bailey, D.B. (2021). Emergence of developmental delay in infants and toddlers with an FMR1 mutation. Pediatrics, 147(5): e2020011528; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-011528

Patel, S.P., Nayar, K., Martin, G.E., Franich, K., Crawford, S., Diehl, J.J., & Losh, M. (2020). An acoustic characterization of prosodic differences in autism spectrum disorder and first-degree relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Epub ahead of print. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04392-9.

Lee, M., Nayar, K., Maltman, N., Hamburger, D., Martin, G.E., Gordon, P.C., & Losh, M. (2020). Understanding social communication differences in autism spectrum disorder and first-degree relatives: A study of looking and speaking. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(6), 2128–2141.

Martin, G.E., Barstein, J., Patel, S., Lee, M., Henry, L., & Losh, M. (2020). Longitudinal analysis of communication repair skills across three neurodevelopmental disabilities. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 55(1), 26-42.

Price, J.R., Martin, G.E., Chen, K. & Jones, J.R. (2020). A preliminary study of writing skills in adolescents with autism across persuasive, expository, and narrative genres. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(1), 319-332.

Swinburne, G., & Martin, G.E. (2020). Equal access to speech-language pathologists in New York City: A survey of two daycares. Journal of Vincentian Social Action, 5(1), Article 5. Available at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa/vol5/iss1/5

Nayar, K., McKinney, W., Hogan, A.L., Martin, G.E., La Valle, C., Sharp, K., Berry-Kravis, E., Norton, E.S., Gordon, P.C., & Losh, M. (2019). Language processing skills linked to FMR1 variation: A study of gaze-language coordination during rapid automatized naming among women with the FMR1 premutation. PLoS ONE 14(7), 1-22.

Martin, G.E., Bush, L., Klusek, J., Patel, S., & Losh, M. (2018). A multimethod analysis of pragmatic skills in children and adolescents with fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 3023–3037.

Nayar, K., Gordon, P.C., Martin, G.E., Hogan, A.L., La Valle, C., McKinney, W., Lee, M., Norton, E.S., & Losh, M. (2018). Links between looking and speaking in autism and first-degree relatives: Insights into the expression of genetic liability to autism. Molecular Autism, 9(1). doi:10.1186/s13229-018-0233-5.

Barstein, J., Martin, G.E., Lee, M., & Losh, M. (2018). A duck wearing boots?! Pragmatic language strategies for repairing communication breakdowns across genetically-based neurodevelopmental disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 1440–1454.

Lee, M., Bush, L., Martin, G.E., Barstein, J., Maltman, N., Klusek, J., & Losh, M. (2017). A multi-method investigation of pragmatic development in individuals with Down syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 122(4), 289–309.

Martin, G.E., Barstein, J., Hornickel, J., Matherly, S., Durante, G., & Losh, M. (2017). Signaling of noncomprehension in communication breakdowns in fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 65, 22-34.

Losh, M., Martin, G.E., Lee, M., Klusek, J., Sideris, J., & Wassink, T. (2017). Developmental markers of genetic liability to autism in parents: A longitudinal, multigenerational study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(3), 834-845.

Lee, M., Martin, G.E., Hogan-Brown, A., Hano, D., Gordon, P.C., & Losh, M. (2017). What’s the story? A computational analysis of narrative competence in autism. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 71, 1-10, doi:10.1177/1362361316677957.

Lee, M., Martin, G.E., Berry-Kravis, E., & Losh, M. (2016). A developmental, longitudinal investigation of autism phenotypic profiles in fragile X syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 8:47, 1-10, doi: 10.1186/s11689-016-9179-0.

Klusek, J., Martin, G. E., & Losh, M. (2014). Consistency between research and clinical diagnoses of autism among boys and girls with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 58, 940-952.

Klusek, J., Martin, G.E., & Losh, M. (2014). A comparison of pragmatic language in boys with autism and fragile X syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57, 1692-1707.

Klusek, J., Losh, M., & Martin, G.E. (2014). Sex differences and within-family associations in the broad autism phenotype. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 18, 106-116.

Klusek, J., Martin, G.E., & Losh, M. (2013). Physiological arousal in autism and fragile X syndrome: Group comparisons and links with pragmatic language. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 118(6), 475-495.

Hogan-Brown, A.L., Losh, M., Martin, G.E., & Mueffelmann, D.J. (2013). An investigation of narrative ability in boys with autism and fragile X syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 118(2), 77-94.

Martin, G.E., Ausderau, K.K., Raspa, M., Bishop, E., Mallya, U., & Bailey, D.B. (2013). Therapy service use among individuals with fragile X syndrome: Findings from a U.S. parent survey. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(9), 837 849.

Martin, G.E., Losh, M., Estigarribia, B., Sideris, J., & Roberts, J. (2013). Longitudinal profiles of expressive vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatic language in boys with fragile X syndrome or Down syndrome. International Journal Language & Communication Disorders,  48(4), 432-443. 

Estigarribia, B., Martin, G.E., & Roberts, J.E. (2012). Cognitive, environmental, and linguistic predictors of syntax in fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 1600–1612.

Losh, M., Martin, G.E., Klusek, J., Hogan-Brown, A.L., & Sideris, J. (2012). Social communication and theory of mind in boys with autism and fragile X syndrome. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 3, 1-12.

Losh, M., Martin, G.E., Klusek, J., & Hogan-Brown, A. (2012). Pragmatic language in autism and fragile X syndrome: Genetic and clinical applications. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 19(2), 48-55.

Losh, M., Klusek, J., Martin, G.E., Sideris, J., Parlier, M., & Piven, J. (2012). Defining genetically meaningful language and personality traits in relatives of individuals with fragile X syndrome and relatives of individuals with autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 159B, 660-668.

Martin, G.E., Roberts, J.E., Helm-Estabrooks, N., Sideris, J., Vanderbilt, J., & Moskowitz, L. (2012). Perseveration in the connected speech of boys with fragile X syndrome with and without autism spectrum disorder. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 117(5), 384-389.

Estigarribia, B., Martin, G.E., Roberts, J.E., Spencer, A., Gucwa, A., & Sideris, J. (2011). Narrative skill in boys with fragile X syndrome with and without autism spectrum disorder. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32, 359–388.  

Zajac, D.J., Harris, A.A., Roberts, J.E., & Martin, G.E. (2009). Direct magnitude estimation of articulation rate in  boys with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 52(5), 1370-9.

Martin, G.E., Klusek, J., Estigarribia, B., & Roberts, J.E. (2009). Language characteristics of individuals with Down syndrome. Topics in Language Disorders, 29(2), 112-132.

Barnes, E., Roberts, J., Long, S.H., Martin, G.E., Berni, M., Callahan-Mandulak, K. & Sideris, J. (2009). Phonological accuracy and intelligibility in connected speech of boys with fragile X syndrome or Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52(4), 1048-61.

Roberts, J., Martin, G.E., Moskowitz, L., Harris, A.A., Foreman, J., & Nelson, L. (2007). Discourse skills of boys with fragile X syndrome in comparison to boys with Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 475-492.

Price, J., Roberts, J., Vandergrift, N., & Martin, G. (2007). Language comprehension in boys with fragile X syndrome and boys with Down syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 51(4), 318-326

Other Publications

Martin, G.E., Bush, L., Patel, S., & Losh, M. (2021). Fragile X syndrome. In L. Cummings (Ed.), Handbook of Pragmatic Language Disorders: Complex and Underserved Populations (pp. 79-98). Cham, Switzerland: Springer-Verlag.

Martin, G.E., Lee, M., & Losh, M. (2017). Intellectual disability. In L. Cummings (Ed.), Research in Clinical Pragmatics, Series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, Vol. 11. Cham, Switzerland: Springer-Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-319-47487-8 (hardcover); 978-3-319-47489-2 (eBook)

Martin, G.E., Losh, M., & Roberts, J.E. (2009). Language and autism in boys with FXS. The National Fragile X Foundation Quarterly, 35, 6-7.

Roberts, J.E., Chapman, R.S., Martin, G.E., & Moskowitz, L. (2008). Language of preschool and school-age children with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome. In S.F. Warren & M.E. Fey (Series Eds.) & J.E. Roberts, R.S. Chapman, & S.F. Warren (Vol. Eds.), Communication and language intervention series: Speech and language development and intervention in Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome (pp. 77-115). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Courses Taught at St. John’s University:

• CSD 1710: Phonetics
• CSD 1720: Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech System
• CSD 1730: Language Acquisition
• CSD 1750: Speech Science
• CSD 1820: Neurological Bases of Normal Human Communication and Balance
• CSD 2760: Language Disorders Across the Lifespan
• CSD 4953: Independent Study
• CSD 452: Special Research
• CSD 201: Introduction to Research Methods