Mechanistic Transitions that Shape Typical and Atypical Social Visual Engagement

项目总结 目前的应用建立在我们实验室最近的研究基础上，该研究表明，社交视觉参与- 婴儿在视觉上探索、参与并最终从周围世界学习和适应的方式- (1)与遗传变异密切相关，同卵双胞胎的一致性等于0.91；(2)高度 在系统发育上是保守的，幼年恒河猴表现出令人震惊的早期眼睛看起来的模式 与人类婴儿同源；以及(3)后来被诊断为ASD的婴儿的病理性受损， 在初始队列和复制队列中观察到的差异至少从2个月开始。本申请将 在这些发现的基础上，研究婴儿期早期的关键转变，为未来实现社会- 沟通的里程碑。我们将研究早期婴儿从反射样社会适应到意志社会适应的转变 产后头两个月的行动(目标1)；出现对等和偶发婴儿社会 互动(目标2)；以及婴儿很早就参与社交的连锁后果--或中断 其中包括自闭症--后来的、长期的社会交流成果(目标3)。最后，我们将把这些连接起来 伴随发展结构和功能大脑网络变化的措施(项目三和五)， 口语交流的出现(在项目II中)，以及对早期社交治疗的反应(在项目II中 项目IV)。250名婴儿将被纳入队列，其中包括患有自闭症儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹 患有自闭症的高危人群(HR-ASD，N=150)以及发育迟缓风险较低的婴儿兄弟姐妹， 由于没有ASD家族史，预计会有典型的发展(LR-TDX，N=100)。数据将是 从出生后第一周开始，纵向和前瞻性地收集。这个项目直接解决了 NIH机构间自闭症协调委员会为自闭症设定的几个理想目标， 重点了解正在展开的发展轨迹、潜在机制和 ASD的生物学特征。

PROJECT SUMMARY The present application builds on recent research in our laboratory showing that social visual engagement—the way in which infants visually explore, engage, and ultimately learn from and adapt to their surrounding world— is (1) tightly coupled to genetic variation, with concordance in identical toddler twins equal to 0.91; (2) highly phylogenetically conserved, with infant rhesus monkeys exhibiting patterns of early eye-looking that are strikingly homologous to human infants; and (3) pathognomonically impaired in infants later diagnosed with ASD, with differences observed from at least month 2 onwards in initial and replication cohorts. The present application will build on these findings to study pivotal transitions in early infancy that set the stage for future attainment of social- communicative milestones. We will investigate early infant transitions from reflex-like to volitional social adaptive action in the first 2 months post-partum (Aim 1); the emergence of reciprocal and contingent infant social interaction (Aim 2); and the cascading consequences of very early infant social engagement—or the disruption thereof in ASD—on later, long-term social-communicative outcomes (Aim 3). Finally, we will connect these measures to concomitant changes in developing structural and functional brain networks (in Projects III and V), to the emergence of spoken communication (in Project II), and to response to early social interaction therapy (in Project IV). A cohort of 250 infants will be enrolled, consisting of infant siblings of children with autism who are at High Risk for developing ASD (HR-ASD, N=150) as well as infant siblings at Low Risk of developmental delays, with Typical Development expected by virtue of having no familial history of ASD (LR-TDx, N=100). Data will be collected longitudinally and prospectively, beginning in the first week after birth. This project directly addresses several of the aspirational goals for autism set forth by the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, with emphasis on understanding the unfolding developmental trajectories, underlying mechanisms, and biological signatures of ASD.