Getting out from behind a computer screen and rubbing shoulders with leading lights when it comes to autism is the goal of a University of Otago student's trip to the world-renowned Mind institute.
PhD candidate Nick Bowden has won a travel fellowship to study for two months at the institute at the University of California to gain a deeper knowledge of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
''I guess the appeal of going there is that my research is all data-driven, so I'm pretty much behind a computer every day.''
An estimated one in every 59 young people was affected by the condition, and that was a number that had been growing over time.
Public awareness, better diagnostic tests, referral patterns and reporting practices had all increased the rate of the condition in the general population.
However, the ''million dollar question'' was the influence environmental and genetic factors had.
Mr Bowden is one of three PhD students to have won the MacGibbon PhD Travel Fellowship this year. The other candidates, Jamie Manning and Annabelle Greenwood, are travelling to New York to study cannabinoid receptors and RNA sequencing.
Students receive up to $12,000 each and spend between two and six months in the United States.
Mr Bowden said his scholarship would hopefully give him a chance to get out into the field and get involved with evaluating symptoms and with interventions on patients.
Interventions could be behavioural or related to communication, and as he understood fed off what motivated and interested the children.
What he would like to see happen was society adapting to accept people with ASD as just being a different way of operating.
''There are a range of really fascinating strengths that are associated with ASD as well.''
They included not only stereotypical abilities with maths and science, but a more visual way of learning, a more logical way of thinking, or a different and fresh outlook on the world.
He hoped his research would benefit individuals with ASD and their families.
