Direct Examination of Imitation-Based Learning in Autism

自闭症模仿学习的直接检查

• 批准号: 9035685
• 负责人: Joshua B Ewen
• 金额: $ 16.16万
• 依托单位: HUGO W. MOSER RES INST KENNEDY KRIEGER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-30 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9035685
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Autistic Disorder; Basic Science; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Child; Childhood; Clinical; Communicative Dysfunctions; Competence; Complex; Control Groups; Data; Development; Educational Intervention; Electroencephalography; Environment; Future; Gestures; Goals; Human Development; Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Laboratories; Language Therapy; Learning; Link; Measures; Motor; Motor Skills; Neurobiology; Participant; Performance; Physiological; Psychologist; Research; Role; Severities; Social Development; Speech; Symptoms; Testing; Time; Work; arm; autism spectrum disorder; base; behavior measurement; brain electrical activity; brain remodeling; design; developmental disease; motor control; motor learning; motor skill learning; neurobiological mechanism; novel; public health relevance; skills; social; social skills

 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.

 描述（由申请人提供）：众所周知，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表明，模仿是学习复杂技能（尤其是社交技能）的关键能力。然而，自闭症谱系障碍中模仿受损与社交、交流和复杂运动行为异常发展之间的联系是推测性的，尚未得到直接记录。本申请中提出的研究旨在直接查看链接 模仿能力受损与学习新的复杂技能的能力之间的关系。这些知识至关重要，因为用于自闭症谱系障碍儿童的许多疗法都依赖于模仿（例如言语治疗），而未来更好的疗法的设计取决于关于自闭症谱系障碍儿童如何最有效学习的精确知识。我们专门检查运动技能，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，我们已经设计了一项新任务，让参与者学习如何在相对较短的时间内用手臂执行复杂的手势。除了记录患有自闭症谱系障碍的受试者（与对照受试者相比）执行这些手势的情况外，我们还将使用大脑电活动的脑电图记录来检查当个体学习更有效地执行手势时，大脑中的运动控制网络如何重塑自身。来自成人和儿童受试者的数据表明，即使经过相对较短的练习时间，也需要逐渐局部化的大脑活动才能正确执行手势。我们的目标是 (1) 检查患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的儿童是否需要更多练习来通过模仿来学习新手势； (2) 确定自闭症谱系障碍儿童与手势练习相关的大脑网络重塑是否较少； (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，患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童在学习这些新的运动技能方面确实会效率较低，并且他们的大脑网络由于基于模仿的练习而改变的能力也会较差。虽然对自闭症谱系障碍患者在一系列技能上存在缺陷这一事实进行了广泛的研究，但拟议的研究是理解通过模仿改变的技能学习如何可能导致这些技能的异常发展的关键一步。