Exploring cortical activation and connectivity in infants with and without familial risk for autism during naturalistic social interactions: A preliminary study
Exploring cortical activation and connectivity in infants with and without familial risk for autism during naturalistic social interactions: A preliminary study
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DOI：
10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101337
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发表时间：
2019-11-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Pelphrey, K. A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bhat, A. N.;McDonald, N. M.;Pelphrey, K. A.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的行为体征通常在生命的第二年即可观察到，并且ASD的可靠诊断可能在2至3岁时进行。研究有ASD家族风险的婴儿可以在第一年内调查ASD风险的早期迹象。大脑异常，如第一年内的超连通性，可能先于生活后期出现的ASD的明显迹象。在这项初步研究中，我们使用功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS），一种婴儿友好的神经成像工具，对运动伪影相对稳健，以检查9个高风险（HR;患有ASD的哥哥姐姐）和6个低风险（LR;没有ASD家族史）6至9个月大的婴儿在自然主义的社会交往过程中的功能激活和连接。我们获得了两个30秒的基线期和一个5分钟的社会互动期。根据氧合（HbO（2））和脱氧（HHb）信号趋势，HR婴儿的右半球和左半球激活程度低于LR婴儿。HR婴儿也有更大的功能连接比LR婴儿在前和后社会时期，并显示出下降的连接在社会时期。我们的研究结果与先前的工作一致，表明与ASD家族风险相关的皮质激活的早期差异，并强调了fNIRS在自然主义社会背景下评估ASD风险的潜在标志物的前景。
Behavioral signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are typically observable by the second year of life and a reliable diagnosis of ASD is possible by 2 to 3 years of age. Studying infants with familial risk for ASD allows for the investigation of early signs of ASD risk within the first year. Brain abnormalities such as hyper-connectivity within the first year may precede the overt signs of ASD that emerge later in life. In this preliminary study, we use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), an infant-friendly neuroimaging tool that is relatively robust against motion artifacts, to examine functional activation and connectivity during naturalistic social interactions in 9 high-risk (HR; older sibling with ASD) and 6 low-risk (LR; no family history of ASD) infants from 6 to 9 months of age. We obtained two 30-second baseline periods and a 5-minute social interaction period. HR infants showed reduced right and left-hemispheric activation compared to LR infants based on oxy (HbO(2)) and deoxy (HHb) signal trends. HR infants also had greater functional connectivity than LR infants during the pre- and post-social periods and showed a drop in connectivity during the social period. Our findings are consistent with previous work suggesting early differences in cortical activation associated with familial risk for ASD, and highlight the promise of fNIRS in evaluating potential markers of ASD risk during naturalistic social contexts.