Social-Emotional Development of Infants At Risk for Autism Spectrum

描述（由申请人提供）：ASD儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹在他们的社会交往结果中表现出很大的差异：一些明显的行为与自闭症谱系诊断一致，其他人表现出不太严重的症状，如语言延迟，其他人没有可检测到的障碍。这个跨站点，范德比尔特-迈阿密项目将检查在何种程度上的早期损伤在特定的注意力和情感机制-这两个都是公认的自闭症的核心缺陷-解释行为异质性，是在这些高危儿童中观察到的。我们特别关注注意力协调和积极情感能力的领域，并检查它们在出生后头两年的发展（即，从6到18个月），以及他们与24岁和36个月的后期社会和沟通结果的关系。首要的假设是，将有发展的连续性，在这些领域在头两年，这些领域的早期差异将是明显的高风险和低风险的ASD组之间，早期损伤将预测在晚出生的ASD兄弟姐妹中观察到的社会和沟通结果的个体差异。具体的调查领域包括积极的情感能力之间的关系在二元和三元背景下在整个第一年的生活，早期积极的情感能力和注意力协调的贡献出现积极的联合注意力能力在第二年的生活，以及早期积极情感能力和注意力协调的个体差异在多大程度上影响了后来的自闭症诊断。这项前瞻性纵向项目将比较200名被诊断患有ASD的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）的发育轨迹和结果。分割组纵向设计将使我们能够检查6个月至36个月龄的年龄组队列内和跨年龄组队列的发育。该项目采用了新颖的方法和婴儿行为的测量，包括电生理和眼动跟踪测量，积极情感沟通和表征的测量，以及与他人分享关于物体的积极情感的纵向测量。纵向结构方程建模和混合建模程序被用来评估典型发育和高危同胞的发育差异，并预测ASD儿童高危同胞结局的异质性。该项目采用了发展心理病理学的角度来阐明规范和干扰的纵向路径走向异质性的结果。公共卫生相关性：对ASD儿童的弟弟妹妹的前瞻性研究提供了一个理想的机会，可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，表现和边界。这些信息对于理解自闭症的原因和开发更有效和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.