Sensory Processing and Integration in Autism

描述(由申请人提供)：多感官输入的非典型整合已被认为是自闭症的一个主要组成部分，这一观点得到了一些临床和基于行为的经验支持。这些感觉整合缺陷在神经处理流程中何时何地发生尚不清楚，了解这一点将对定义自闭症的神经病理学至关重要。事实上，人们对典型发育儿童的健康感觉整合机制的基本发展知之甚少，尽管最近在动物模型中的研究开始揭示了一些情况。在这个项目中，我们将使用我们实验室在健康成年人身上开发的已建立的多感觉整合的电生理指标，来测试自闭症患者多感觉整合受损的假设。我们记录的高密度神经活动电子记录将提供信息处理流中感觉整合与通常发展匹配对照不同的时间的精确测量，以及受影响的潜在大脑过程的良好模型。我们期望多感官输入的处理方式会对儿童的发展产生深远的影响，因此，我们也将使用横断面研究方法，描述典型发育儿童的多感官整合的“正常”发展轨迹。关于自闭症患者的多感觉过程在何时何地受到影响的具体假设是基于这样一个论点，即该人群中遥远的皮质区域之间存在贫穷的连接，而我们的预测是基于我们根据现有文献发展的基本的多感觉整合的三阶段模型。根据该项目获得的数据将为自闭症患者多感觉整合过程中的缺陷提供强有力的经验性测试。了解多感觉整合是如何在儿童时期发展和变化的，将为多感觉整合的模型提供重要的信息，并提供一个初步的基准，根据这些基准可以预测一系列发育障碍中可能出现的无序的多感觉整合。公共卫生相关性：跨感觉模式整合的失败被认为是一些临床人群的核心缺陷，特别是在自闭症谱系障碍方面，但在精神分裂症方面也是如此。为了了解这类患者的感觉整合是如何出错的，我们必须首先对健康的大脑如何整合来自环境的听觉、视觉和躯体感觉输入有一个清楚的了解。本项目旨在描绘6至15岁儿童大脑皮质多感觉加工的神经生理过程的发展轨迹，并测试自闭症儿童多感觉加工的完整性。这一结果将对自闭症患者的临床管理以及自闭症模型产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Atypical integration of multisensory inputs has been suggested as a major component of autism, with some clinical and behavior-based empirical support for this view. Where and when in the neural processing stream these sensory integration deficits occur is as yet unknown, and gaining an understanding of this will be essential in defining the neuropathology of autism. In fact, there is precious little understanding of the basic development of healthy sensory integration mechanisms in typically developing children, although recent work in animal models is beginning to shed some light. Under this project, we will use established electrophysiological metrics of multisensory integration that we have developed in our laboratory in healthy adults, to test the hypothesis that multisensory integration is impaired in autism. The high-density electrical recordings of neural activity that we record will provide a precise measure of when in the information processing stream sensory integration differs from typically developing matched controls, as well as a good model of the underlying brain processes that are affected. We expect that there are profound developmental effects on how multisensory inputs are treated and we will therefore also characterize the "normal" developmental trajectory of multisensory integration in typically developing children, using a cross-sectional approach. Specific hypotheses about when and where multisensory processes will be affected in autism are made based on the thesis that there is impoverished connectivity between distant cortical regions in this population, and our predictions are predicated on a rudimentary three-stage model of multisensory integration that we have developed in light of the extant literature. The data acquired under this project will provide a strong empirical test of deficits in multisensory integration processes in autism. Understanding how multisensory integration develops and changes over childhood will significantly inform models of multisensory integration, and provide an initial benchmark against which predictions about possible disordered multisensory integration in a host of developmental disorders can be made. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The failure of integration across the sensory modalities is thought to be a core deficit in a number of clinical populations, especially in autism spectrum disorders but also in schizophrenia. In order to understand how it is that sensory integration goes awry in such patients, we must first develop a clear understanding of how the healthy brain integrates auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from the environment. This project sets out to delineate the developmental trajectory of the neurophysiological processes underlying multisensory processing in the human cortex in children from 6 to 15 years of age, and to test the integrity of multisensory processes in children with autism. The results will have implications both for the clinical management of individuals with autism, as well as for models of autism.