Direct Examination of Imitation-Based Learning in Autism

 描述（由申请人提供）：长期以来，人们一直认为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）缺乏模仿他人行为的能力。研究典型发展的心理学家已经表明，模仿是学习复杂技能的关键能力，特别是社交技能。然而，自闭症患者的模仿能力受损与社交、交流和复杂运动行为的异常发展之间的联系是推测性的，没有直接的文献记录。本申请中提出的研究旨在直接研究 模仿能力受损和学习新的复杂技能的能力之间的关系。这一知识是至关重要的，因为许多用于ASD儿童的疗法依赖于模仿（例如，未来更好的治疗方法的设计取决于对ASD儿童如何最有效地学习的精确了解。我们专门研究运动技能，因为运动技能可以相对容易地观察和量化。为了进行这项研究，我们已经设计了一个新的任务，参与者在相对较短的时间内学习如何用手臂执行复杂的手势。除了记录ASD受试者（与对照受试者相比）如何执行这些手势外，我们还将使用脑电活动的EEG记录来检查大脑中的运动控制网络如何随着个体学习更有效地执行手势而重塑自己。来自成人和儿童受试者的数据显示，即使在相对较短的练习时间后，也需要逐渐局部化的大脑活动来正确地执行手势。我们的目的是（1）检查ASD儿童是否需要更多的练习来通过模仿学习新的手势;（2）确定ASD儿童是否有较少的与手势练习相关的大脑网络重塑;（3）评估这些差异是否与ASD的主要症状相关：社交和沟通技能受损。我们假设患有ASD的儿童在学习这些新的运动技能方面确实效率较低，并且他们的大脑网络由于模仿练习而改变的能力较低。虽然有广泛的研究表明ASD患者在一系列技能方面存在障碍，但拟议的研究是理解通过模仿改变技能学习如何可能导致这些技能异常发展的关键一步。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to imitate actions performed by others has long known to be deficient in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Psychologists studying typical development have shown that imitation is a critical ability for learning complex skills-social skills in particular. The link between impaired imitation and abnormal development of social, communicative and complex motor behavior in ASD, however, is speculative and has not been documented directly. The research proposed in this application intends to look directly at the link between impaired imitation and the ability to learn new, complex skills. This knowledge is critical, as many therapies used for children with ASD rely on imitation (e.g., speech-language therapy), and the future design of better therapies depends on precise knowledge about how children with ASD learn most effectively. We examine motor skills specifically, because motor skills can be observed and quantified relatively easily. To carry out this research, we have already designed a new task in which participants learn how to perform complex gestures with their arm over a relatively short period of time. In addition to recording how well subjects with ASD (as compared with control subjects) perform these gestures, we will use EEG recordings of the brain's electrical activity to examine how motor control networks in the brain remodel themselves as individuals learn to perform the gestures more efficiently. Data from adult and pediatric subjects show that progressively localized brain activity is required, even after relatively brief periods of practice, to perform the gestures correctly. Our Aims are (1) to examine whether children with ASD require more practice to learn new gestures by imitation; (2) to determine whether children with ASD have less remodeling of brain networks associated with practice of the gestures; and (3) to assess whether these differences correlate with the cardinal symptoms of ASD: impairments of social and communicative skills. We hypothesize that children with ASD will indeed be less efficient at learning these new motor skills and that their brain networks will have less of an ability to change as a result of imitation-based practice. While there is extensive research into the fact that individuals with ASD have impairments in a range of skills, the proposed research is a critical step in understanding how altered skill learning-by imitation-may contribute to the abnormal development of these skills in the first place.