Pre- and Postnatal Neurobehavioral Profiles in Infants at Risk for Autism

有自闭症风险的婴儿产前和产后神经行为特征

• 批准号: 7642540
• 负责人: STEPHEN J SHEINKOPF
• 金额: $ 7.42万
• 依托单位: WOMEN AND INFANTS HOSPITAL-RHODE ISLAND
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2010-12-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7642540
• 关键词: Acoustics; Affective; Area; Attention; Auditory; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Caring; Case Study; Child; Child Development; Crying; Data; Development; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Discipline of obstetrics; Early Diagnosis; Early identification; Eye; Fetal Heart Rate; Fetal Movement; Fetus; Follow-Up Studies; Foundations; Goals; Grant; Heart Rate; Hypersensitivity; Impairment; Infant; Intervention; Investigation; Life; Literature; Measurement; Measures; Mothers; Movement; Muscle hypotonia; Musculoskeletal Equilibrium; Nature; Neonatal; Newborn Infant; Pattern; Perinatal; Plant Roots; Population; Procedures; Prospective Studies; Recruitment Activity; Regulation; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Retrospective Studies; Risk; Sampling; Screening procedure; Series; Siblings; Signal Transduction; Staging; Stimulus; Symptoms; System; Temperament; Testing; Validity and Reliability; Voice; analog; autism spectrum disorder; base; biobehavioral measurement; disorder risk; early childhood; fetal; fetus at risk; follow-up; high risk; high risk infant; improved; infancy; neurobehavior; neurobehavioral; novel; postnatal; pregnant; prenatal; prospective; public health relevance; response; social; sound; tool; vibration

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Identification of early signs of autism is a critical goal for research. This study will examine fetuses of mothers who have older children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to identify signs of autism in the prenatal and newborn periods. ASD is highly heritable and there is elevated risk for autism in siblings. Recent research on high-risk infants (those with an older sibling with ASD) has identified potential signs of autism by early infancy. These signs of risk include behavioral features known to be indicative of ASD in later development, including poor social attention, social responsivity, and eye contact. Research from typical and other atypical populations supports the reliable measurement of biobehavioral response profiles in the fetal period. Thus, evidence indicates that it may be possible to identify signs of autism the perinatal and early postnatal periods. Such findings would have profound implications for understanding the developmental course in ASD and would open the door to both identification and treatment in the earliest stages of development. We will investigate fetal movement and heart rate in response to social and non-social stimuli in pregnant mothers who have an older child with an ASD (high risk fetuses) as compared to mothers who have older children with typical development (low risk fetuses). Research has demonstrated that fetal responses to stimuli are predictive of later behavior and temperament, and that fetuses can discriminate familiar voices (i.e., respond differentially to social stimuli). Based on these findings, and utilizing procedures already used in our lab, we will administer vibroacoustic stimulus (vibration plus sound; used regularly in prenatal obstetric care) and a series of social stimuli to the fetus (audio recording of the mother's and a stranger's voice). We will measure fetal responses by observing changes in movement, heart rate, and other signs of reactivity. Measures of neonatal behavior and reactivity will be administered in the newborn period, including analogues to the 3rd trimester stimuli, a newborn neurobehavioral exam, and acoustic cry analyses. Our initial examination of the resulting data will be to compare the response profiles of high and low risk infants. This project will lay the groundwork for developmental follow-up of the at risk infants, and will provide pilot data to support a more extensive study of this kind. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research is highly relevant to both early identification and intervention for children with autism. By identifying atypical behavioral and reactivity patterns in the fetal and newborn periods in infants at risk for autism, this research will aide in the development of more sensitive and specific screening and diagnostic tools for use in infancy. In addition, this research will improve our understanding of the roots and course of impairments in autism.

描述（由申请人提供）：识别自闭症的早期症状是研究的一个重要目标。这项研究将检查患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的大龄儿童的母亲的胎儿，以确定产前和新生儿期自闭症的迹象。ASD具有高度遗传性，兄弟姐妹患自闭症的风险较高。最近对高风险婴儿（那些有ASD哥哥的婴儿）的研究已经在婴儿早期发现了自闭症的潜在迹象。这些风险迹象包括已知在后期发展中指示ASD的行为特征，包括不良的社会注意力，社会反应和眼神接触。来自典型和其他非典型人群的研究支持可靠的测量胎儿期的生物行为反应概况。因此，有证据表明，在围产期和产后早期识别自闭症的迹象是可能的。这些发现将对理解ASD的发展过程产生深远的影响，并将为在发展的最早阶段进行识别和治疗打开大门。我们将研究胎动和心率对社会和非社会刺激的反应，在怀孕的母亲谁有一个较大的孩子与ASD（高风险胎儿）相比，母亲谁有较大的孩子与典型的发展（低风险胎儿）。研究表明，胎儿对刺激的反应可以预测以后的行为和气质，胎儿可以区分熟悉的声音（即，对社会刺激的反应不同）。基于这些发现，并利用我们实验室已经使用的程序，我们将管理振动声刺激（振动加声音;经常用于产前产科护理）和一系列的社会刺激胎儿（母亲和陌生人的声音录音）。我们将通过观察胎动、心率和其他反应性体征的变化来测量胎儿的反应。新生儿的行为和反应的措施将在新生儿期，包括类似的第三个三个月的刺激，新生儿神经行为检查，和声音哭分析。我们对结果数据的初步检查将是比较高风险和低风险婴儿的反应概况。该项目将为高危婴儿的发育跟踪奠定基础，并将提供试验数据，以支持更广泛的此类研究。公共卫生相关性：这项研究与自闭症儿童的早期识别和干预高度相关。通过识别有自闭症风险的婴儿在胎儿和新生儿时期的非典型行为和反应模式，这项研究将有助于开发更敏感和更具体的筛查和诊断工具，供婴儿期使用。此外，这项研究将提高我们对自闭症障碍的根源和过程的理解。