Social-Emotional Development of Infants At Risk for Autism Spectrum

描述(由申请人提供)：患有自闭症儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹在社交交流结果方面表现出很大的差异：一些明显的行为与自闭症谱系诊断一致，其他的表现出不那么严重的症状，如语言延迟，而其他的没有证据表明存在可检测到的障碍。这个跨地点的范德比尔特-迈阿密项目将研究特定注意力和情感机制的早期损害在多大程度上解释了在这些高危儿童中观察到的行为异质性。这两种机制都是自闭症的核心缺陷。我们特别关注注意力协调和积极情感能力领域，并考察它们在出生后头两年(即6至18个月)的发展，以及它们与24岁和36个月以后的社会和沟通结果的关系。最重要的假设是，在最初的两年里，这些领域将有发展的连续性，这些领域的早期差异将在ASD高风险组和低风险组之间明显，并且早期损害将预测在较晚出生的ASD兄弟姐妹中观察到的社交和沟通结果的个体差异。具体的研究领域包括生命第一年在二元和三元情境中的积极情感能力之间的关系，早期积极情感能力和注意力协调对第二年出现积极联合注意能力的贡献，以及早期积极情感能力和注意协调的个体差异对后来的自闭症症状的影响程度。这一前瞻性纵向项目将比较200名被诊断为自闭症儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹(Sib-ASD)和100名典型发育儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹(Sib-TD)的发展轨迹和结果。分离式面板纵向设计将使我们能够检查6个月至36个月的年龄组内和跨年龄组的发育情况。该项目使用了新的方法和婴儿行为测量，包括电生理和眼球跟踪测量，积极情感交流和表征的测量，以及与他人分享关于物体的积极情绪的纵向测量。利用纵向结构方程模型和混合模型程序来评估典型发育中和高危兄弟姐妹的发育差异，并预测自闭症儿童高危兄弟姐妹结局的异质性。该项目采用发展精神病理学的观点，阐明了通向异质结果的规范和混乱的纵向路径。公共卫生相关性：对患有自闭症儿童的年幼兄弟姐妹进行的前瞻性研究提供了一个理想的机会，以了解自闭症的最早迹象以及更广泛的自闭症表型的发展、表现和界限。这些信息对于了解自闭症的原因以及开发更有效和更有针对性的治疗方法至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infant siblings of children with ASD exhibit substantial variability in their social-communicative outcomes: some manifest behaviors consistent with an autism spectrum diagnosis, others exhibit less severe symptoms such as language delay, and others evidence no detectable disorder. This cross-site, Vanderbilt- Miami project will examine the extent to which early impairments in specific attentional and affective mechanisms - both of which are putative core deficits of autism - explain the behavioral heterogeneity that is observed in these high-risk children. We focus specifically on the domains of attention coordination and positive affective competencies, and examine their development across the first two years of postnatal life (i.e., from 6 to 18 months) and their relation to later social and communicative outcomes at age 24 and 36 months. The overarching hypotheses are that there will be developmental continuity in these domains across the first two years, that early differences in these domains will be evident between groups at high- and low-risk for ASD, and that early impairments will predict individual differences in social and communicative outcomes observed in later-born ASD siblings. Specific areas of investigation include the relation between positive affective competencies in dyadic and triadic contexts across the first year of life, the contributions of early positive affective competencies and attention coordination to the emergence of positive joint attention competencies in the second year of life, and the extent to which individual differences in early positive affective competencies and attention coordination contribute to later autism symptomatology. This prospective longitudinal project will compare developmental trajectories and outcomes in 200 infant siblings of children diagnosed with ASD (Sib-ASD) and 100 infant siblings of typically developing children (Sib-TD). A split panel longitudinal design will allow us to examine development both within- and across- age-group cohorts from 6 months to 36 months of age. This project employs novel methods and measurement of infant behavior including electrophysiological and eye tracking measures, measures of positive affect communication and representation, and longitudinal measures of sharing positive emotion about objects with others. Longitudinal structural equation modeling and mixed modeling procedures are utilized to assess differences in the development of typically developing and at- risk siblings and to predict heterogeneity in the outcomes of the at-risk siblings of children with ASD. The project employs a developmental psychopathology perspective to shed light on normative and disturbed longitudinal pathways toward heterogenous outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The prospective study of younger siblings of children with ASD offers an ideal opportunity to learn about the earliest signs of autism as well as the development, manifestation, and boundaries of the broader autism phenotype. This information is critical for understanding the causes of autism and for developing more effective and targeted treatments.