Neural and developmental trajectories of females with autism spectrum disorder

女孩和妇女在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）研究中研究不足，因为研究样本通常 反映了ASD患病率中男性占主导地位，每3-4名男孩被诊断为女孩。纵向成像 完全没有足够数量的女性参与的研究。为了填补这一重要的知识空白， 我们的目标是在一个大的，纵向的， 近100名患有自闭症的女孩。随着该领域转向识别ASD风险的神经生物标志物 和预测结果，了解男性和女性之间的相似性和差异是至关重要的 自闭症患者的情况另一个严重的需要是更好地了解共同发生的精神疾病 女性ASD患者众所周知，孤独症患者有很高的并发症率， 精神病理学，但对女孩可能特有的早期行为和神经风险因素知之甚少。 就像在许多其他医学领域一样，对患有ASD的女孩和妇女的最佳治疗只会出现 与性有关的自闭症属性和问题得到充分理解时。2014年，我们成立了女孩 发展神经成像（GAIN）研究，该研究增加了患有自闭症的女性的代表性， ASD在一个更大的正在进行的项目称为自闭症表型组项目，并遵循了一组女孩在三个 2-6岁的时间点。有了这个应用程序，我们计划进行第四个纵向时间点， GAIN参与者在童年中期（9-12岁）。此外，为了提高普遍性， 根据调查结果，我们计划招募新的女孩参加这项研究，重点是种族和少数民族群体， 在历史上，代表性不足。新入组的女孩将遵循由以下机构制定的相同研究方案： 将把全球性别平等网络的研究和数据结合起来。我们提出以下目的：1）识别性别特异性神经元 和行为模式。2)为了确定神经系统的性别差异， 与儿童中期内在和外在精神病理学症状相关的危险因素 3)描述注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状的出现和影响， 自闭症女孩评估女性ASD是一个跨领域的目标，涵盖了美国的所有目标 卫生与人类服务部机构间自闭症协调委员会，也是一致的 与跨国家卫生研究院妇女健康研究战略计划的目标。

Girls and women are understudied in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research because study samples often reflect the male predominance in ASD prevalence, with 3-4 boys diagnosed for every girl. Longitudinal imaging studies with sufficient numbers of females are completely lacking. To address this important gap in knowledge, we aim to evaluate brain and behavioral trajectories from early to middle childhood in a large, longitudinal cohort of nearly 100 girls with autism. As the field moves towards identifying neural biomarkers for ASD risk and predicting outcomes, it is critical to understand similarities and differences between males and females with ASD across the lifespan. Another serious need is to better understand co-occurring psychiatric conditions in females with ASD. It is well-recognized that individuals with autism have high rates of co-occurring psychopathology, but little is known about early behavioral and neural risk factors that may be specific to girls. As in so many other areas of medicine, the optimal treatment of girls and women with ASD will only emerge when sex-related autism attributes and problems are adequately understood. In 2014, we established the Girls with Autism – Neuroimaging of Development (GAIN) study, which increased representation of females with ASD in a larger ongoing project called the Autism Phenome Project and followed a cohort of girls across three time points from 2-6 years of age. With this application, we plan to conduct a fourth longitudinal time point in GAIN participants during middle childhood (9-12 years of age). In addition, in order to increase generalizability of findings, we plan to enroll new girls into the study with a focus on racial and ethnic minority groups that have historically been under-represented. Newly enrolled girls will follow the same study protocols established by the GAIN study and data will be combined. We propose the following aims: 1) To identify sex-specific neural and behavioral patterns in girls with ASD in early and middle childhood. 2) To identify sex differences in neural risk factors associated with symptoms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in middle childhood. 3) To characterize the emergence and impact of symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in girls with ASD. Evaluating females with ASD is a cross-cutting goal that spans all objectives of the US Department of Health & Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and is also consistent with the goals of the Trans-NIH Strategic Plan for Women’s Health Research.