Taste, smell, and feeding behavior in autism: A quantitative traits study

描述(申请人提供)：尽管自闭症感觉症状的认识由来已久，但很少有经验性研究检验这一领域功能障碍的性质和特异性。现有的研究表明，感觉障碍是自闭症非常重要的临床问题，并可能与其他行为和社会缺陷的存在或发展有关。在化学感觉处理领域，有相当多的证据表明，自闭症儿童对味道和气味表现出不寻常的反应，我们最近在味觉和气味识别的心理生理测试中记录了自闭症特有的损害。味道和气味对进食行为都是至关重要的，越来越多的文献记录了自闭症儿童限制进食和不典型进食的高比率。嗅觉在哺乳动物的社会认同中也是至关重要的。对精神分裂症的研究，以及最近我们在自闭症方面的工作，都发现气味识别受损和社交功能障碍之间存在联系。在非自闭症家庭中，味觉和嗅觉功能都被证明是聚集在一起的，我们假设与化学感觉缺陷有关的一些食物偏好、行为和社会症状也发现了熟悉性。在这个项目中，我们将进一步研究自闭症患者的化学感觉加工，以及它与进食和社会行为的关系，以及这些数量性状的熟悉性。在目标1中，我们将对175个家庭(包括一个患有自闭症的先证者、一个未受影响的兄弟姐妹和父母)和100个匹配良好的典型对照进行表型，以了解和识别气味和味道、食物偏好模式和社会损害程度。在目标2中，我们将确定自闭症特有的化学感觉模式和相关功能，并检查这些数量性状是如何相互关联的。在目标3中，我们将确定这些性状的家族聚集性。综上所述，这项工作将为理解自闭症谱系障碍中的感觉缺陷以及这些数量特征如何作为自闭症易感性增加的标志提供新的框架。公共卫生相关性：项目叙事感官症状对自闭症患者来说是一个非常重要的临床问题。在这项应用中，我们将研究自闭症患者是如何处理味觉和嗅觉信息的，以及这些能力的困难如何与其他临床重要症状(例如，限制进食行为)相关。受到越来越多关于味觉和嗅觉遗传学的文献的启发，我们还将研究这些特征在有自闭症孩子的家庭中是如何分享的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite long-standing recognition of sensory symptoms in autism, few empirical studies have examined the nature and specificity of dysfunction in this domain. The extant research demonstrates that sensory dysfunction is very significant clinical problem in autism, and may furthermore be related to the presence or development of other behavioral and social deficits. Within the domain of chemosensory processing, there is considerable evidence that children with autism show unusual responses to tastes and odors, and we have recently documented autism-specific impairments in psychophysiological tests of taste and odor identification. Taste and smell are both critical for ingestive behaviors, and a growing literature documents high rates of restricted and atypical eating in children with autism. Olfaction is also critical in mammalian social identification. Research in schizophrenia, and more recently our work in autism, has found a link between impaired odor identification and social dysfunction. Both taste and olfactory functions have been shown to aggregate in non-autism families, and familiality has also been found for some of the food preference, behavioral, and social symptoms that we hypothesize are related to chemosensory deficits. In this project, we shall further investigate chemosensory processing in autism and how it is related to feeding and social behaviors, and the familiality of these quantitative traits. In Aim 1, we shall phenotype 175 families (including a proband with autism, an unaffected sibling, and both parents), and 100 well-matched typical controls, on their ability to detect and identify odorants and tastes, pattern of food preferences, and degree of social impairment. In Aim 2, we shall determine autism-specific patterns of chemosensory and related functions, and examine how these quantitative traits are interrelated. In Aim 3, we shall determine the familial aggregation of these traits. Taken together this work will provide new frameworks for understanding sensory deficits in autism spectrum disorders and how these quantitative traits can serve as markers for increased liability to ASDs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative Sensory symptoms are a very significant clinical problem for individuals with autism. In this application, we will examine how individuals with autism process taste and smell information, and how difficulties in these abilities relate to other clinically important symptoms (e.g., restricted eating behavior). Inspired by a growing literature on the genetics of taste and smell, we will also study how these traits are shared within families who have a child with autism.