Unusual Sensory Experiences in Young Children w/Autism

描述(由申请人提供)：自闭症儿童对感官刺激的各种不寻常反应(低反应和高反应)被记录在案，在社交场合似乎会加剧。这些现象的发展性质及其与自闭症核心特征的关系还没有被很好地理解。我们的模型解释了自闭症中不同寻常的感觉体验，涉及到信息处理(感觉定向)的基本缺陷，受到社会背景和发展的调节。这个项目的具体目标是：(1)测量患有自闭症的幼儿、其他发育障碍(DD)儿童和典型发育儿童对感觉体验的反应与发育相关的变化；(2)确定自闭症特有的感觉加工模式；以及(3)确定感觉加工模式与自闭症表型表现的差异程度。将使用横断面方法研究180名儿童的不寻常感觉体验(60名自闭症儿童、60名DD儿童和60名发育正常的儿童)。自闭症和DD组的年龄从2到7岁不等。所有三组都将根据非语言心理年龄和性别进行匹配。将使用一系列测量(诊断、发育、感觉和表型特征)对儿童进行评估。一种横断面方法将测试感觉症状的频率作为成熟变量和群体成员的函数而变化的程度。将分析反映四种感觉处理模式(对社会/非社会刺激的低/高反应)的综合分数，以明确区分自闭症与其他群体。最后，这些感觉模式将与社会关联性、交流和限制/重复行为的衡量标准相关联。我们的概念模型预测，a)随着年龄、认知能力和语言的增加，所有三组人对感觉刺激的异常反应都会减少，b)自闭症组的症状出现频率最高，c)低反应模式(定向缺陷)将特定于自闭症，并因社会刺激和非社会刺激而放大，d)感觉加工的四种模式将与自闭症表型特征中与社会相关的亚型和严重程度不同地相关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A variety of unusual responses (hypo- and hyper-responses) to sensory stimuli are documented in children with autism and appear to be exacerbated in social situations. The developmental nature of these phenomena and their relationship to the core features of autism are not well understood. Our model explaining unusual sensory experiences in autism involves a basic deficit in information processing (sensory orienting), moderated by social context and development. The specific aims of this project are to: (1) measure developmentally-related changes in responses to sensory experiences in young children with autism, children with other developmental disabilities (DD), and typically-developing children; (2) identify sensory processing patterns that are unique to autism; and (3) determine the extent to which sensory processing patterns covary with phenotypic expressions of autism. A cross-sectional methodology will be used to study unusual sensory experiences in 180 children (60 with autism, 60 with DD, and 60 with typical development). The autism and DD groups will range from 2-7 years of age. All three groups will be matched according to nonverbal mental age and gender. Children will be assessed using a battery of measures (diagnostic, developmental, sensory, and phenotypic features). A cross-sectional methodology will test the degree to which frequencies of sensory symptoms vary as a function of maturational variables and group membership. Composite scores reflecting four sensory processing patterns (hypo/hyper-responsiveness to social/nonsocial stimuli) will be analyzed to specifically discriminate autism from other groups. Finally, these sensory patterns will be correlated with measures of social-relatedness, communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. Our conceptual model predicts that a) all three groups will demonstrate a decrease in unusual responses to sensory stimuli as age, cognitive abilities, and language increase, b) the autism group will have the highest frequency of symptoms, c) a hypo-responsive pattern (orienting deficit) will be specific to autism, magnified for social versus nonsocial stimuli, and d) the four patterns of sensory processing will differentially correlate with social-relatedness subtypes and levels of severity in the phenotypic characteristics of autism.