The ontogeny of social vocal engagement and its derailment in autism

十年的开创性研究利用眼动追踪技术来测量自发视觉 观察自然情境的扫描行为表明， 自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）在生命的第一年表现出非典型的视觉注意力模式， 与面孔的社会接触对于向口语的过渡至关重要。扩大我们 埃默里大学ACE的程序性努力，以跟踪社会参与的个体发育及其脱轨， 自闭症项目II将绘制出前三个阶段社会发声参与的发展演变图 年的生活，探讨社会视觉参与早期出轨的后果，调查在 项目一。通过跟踪项目II中口语的发展，同时进行眼动跟踪， 在项目I中，对235名婴儿进行了2至36个月的对说话面孔的视觉注意力测量， ASD、非自闭症发育迟缓（DD）和典型发育（TD）之间的密切协同作用 这两个项目将揭示两个定义ASD的核心赤字之间的关系，以及 建议项目III中采用的针对性早期干预机制。项目II的目标是测试 有自闭症风险的婴儿出现的交流脱轨可以归因于 社会参与机制的早期崩溃。第一个目标是量化早期声乐 TD、DD和ASD婴儿的行为和口语发展，基于自动声学 分析每个孩子一天的语言环境录音，每月收集一次 2 - 36个月在家里。第二个目的是确定社会参与之间的关系 在生命的第一年和口语发展的前三年。第三个目标是 确定视觉注意力定量测量的发育概况（使用眼动跟踪） 测量）和口语发展（使用声学测量）在生命的头两年 可以一起用作：（a）分类诊断标记;（B）自闭症的预测因子;（c） 定义自闭症谱系内内在表型的方法，将风险、诊断和结果联系起来。 相关性（参见说明）： 本研究项目将阐明ASD中两个核心缺陷之间的关系， 生活的第一年内的社会参与如何影响后来的口语发展， 帮助指导制定针对自闭症沟通缺陷的干预措施， NIH机构间自闭症委员会战略计划中的三个关键主题：“早期检测”， “预防”和“异质性”。

Ten years of pioneering research capitalizing on eye-tracking technology to measure spontaneous visual scanning behavior in viewing of naturalistic situations have demonstrated that infants at risk of developing autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display atypical patterns of visual attention in the first year of life, a period when social engagement with faces is crucial for the transition to spoken language. Expanding our programmatic effort in the Emory ACE to track the ontogeny of social engagement and its derailment in autism. Project II will map out the developmental unfolding of social vocal engagement over the first three years of life, to explore the consequences of eariy derailment of social visual engagement investigated in Project I. By tracking the development of spoken language in Project II concurrently with eye-tracking measures of visual attention to talking faces in Project I from 2 to 36 months in a cohort of 235 infants with ASD, non-autistic developmental delays (DD) and typical development (TD), the close synergy between these two projects will shed light on the relationship between two core deficits defining ASD, as well as suggesting mechanisms for targeted eariy intervention exploited in Project III. The goal of Project II is to test the hypothesis that the derailment of emerging communication in infants at risk of autism can be attributed to an eariier breakdown in mechanisms of social engagement. The first aim is to quantify eariy vocal behavior and spoken language development in TD, DD, and ASD infants, based on automated acoustic analysis of day-long audio recordings of each child's language environment collected at monthly intervals from 2-36 months in the home. The second aim is to determine the relationship between social engagement in the first year of life and spoken language development in the first three years of life. The third aim is to determine whether developmental profiles for quantitative measures of visual attention (using eye-tracking measures) and spoken language development (using acoustic measures) within the first two years of life can together be used as: (a) categorical diagnostic markers; (b) predictors of autistic symptomatology; (c) a means of defining endophenotypes within the autism spectrum, linking risk, diagnosis and outcome. RELEVANCE (See instructions): This research project will shed light on the relationship between two core deficits in ASD by determining how social engagement within the first year of life influences later spoken language development, and will help to guide the development of interventions that target the communication deficit in autism, addressing three key themes in the NIH Interagency Autism Committee Strategic Plan: "Eariier Detection", "Prevention", and "Heterogeneity".