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 反映男性占主导地位的ASD患病率，每名女孩诊断出3-4个男孩。纵向成像 完全缺乏足够数量的女性参与的研究。为了解决这一重要的知识鸿沟， 我们的目标是在一个大的、纵向的研究中评估儿童早期到中期的大脑和行为轨迹 近100名患有自闭症的女孩的队列。随着该领域朝着识别ASD风险的神经生物标志物的方向发展 和预测结果，了解男性和女性之间的相似和差异是至关重要的 在整个生命周期内患有自闭症。另一个迫切需要的是更好地了解同时发生的精神疾病 患有自闭症的女性。众所周知，自闭症患者的共生率很高。 精神病理学，但对女孩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，对患有自闭症的女孩和妇女的最佳治疗只会出现 当与性有关的自闭症的属性和问题得到充分了解时。2014年，我们成立了女孩队 与自闭症-发育神经成像(GAIN)研究，该研究增加了女性 ASD参与了一个名为自闭症现象组项目的更大的正在进行的项目，并跟踪了一群来自三个国家的女孩 时间点从2岁到6岁。通过此应用程序，我们计划在 在童年中期(9-12岁)获得参与者。此外，为了增加普适性， 根据研究结果，我们计划招募新的女孩参加这项研究，重点关注那些拥有 从历史上看，这一数字一直偏低。新入学的女孩将遵循由 GAIN研究和数据将结合在一起。我们提出了以下目标：1)识别特定性别的神经 以及儿童早期和中期ASD女孩的行为模式。2)识别神经中的性别差异 儿童期中期内化和外化精神病症状相关的危险因素。 3)研究儿童注意缺陷多动障碍(ADHD)症状的出现及其影响。 患有自闭症的女孩。评估患有自闭症的女性是一个跨越美国所有目标的交叉目标 卫生与公众服务部机构间自闭症协调委员会也一致 与跨国立卫生研究院妇女健康研究战略计划的目标相一致。

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.