Investigating Neural and Behavioral Alignment as a Mechanism of Social Interaction Challenges in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

项目摘要/摘要 自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)在美国每54名儿童中就有1名受到影响，其特点是困难 在发起和维持社会互动方面，导致对现实世界的社会功能和 心理健康。因此，ASD干预的一个重要目标是改善社会互动结果， 尤其是青春期早期敏感时期的同伴交往。在青春期早期， 患有自闭症的儿童在社会发展方面落后于同龄人，但同伴关系越来越 心理健康的重要决定因素。改善社会互动的一个潜在干预目标 ASD的结果是对齐，即两个或更多个人的神经信号对齐的程度， 行为和情绪在时间上。对齐包括神经相似性(个体先前存在的相似性 神经对刺激的反应)和交互同步性(身体位置和面部的动态调整 发生在相互作用的个体之间的表达)。对齐已被确立为一项重要的 在典型发展的个体中预测社交成功的因素，以及一些前期工作 提示对齐在包括患有ASD的个体在内的相互作用中可能是非典型的。但是，对齐 在青春期早期的同龄人中，还没有研究过它与社交结果的相关性 ASD中的人际关系。此外，ASD中一种有前景的非典型相互作用同步机制 社会关注，还没有被直接测试为诊断和非典型同步性之间的中介。通过 使用生态有效的方法来检查生活中的社会互动行为和结果之间的二元 新的同伴，这项建议将测试一致性作为ASD中同伴互动挑战的一种机制在真实- 世界背景。对齐的两个方面，神经相似性(目标1)和交互同步性(目标2)将是 被测试为包括患有自闭症的个体在内的二人组社交挑战的预测因子。AIM 3将测试 非典型性社会注意在ASD诊断与非典型性ASD关系中的中介作用 交互同步。总而言之，这些实验不仅将检查诊断组在 一致性，但也量化一致性对现实世界社交互动成功的影响，并调查 诊断和交互同步性之间关系的潜在中介。早期同伴互动成功 青春期是心理健康的关键决定因素，而识别非典型排列是一种机制 同伴互动挑战的增加可能导致新的干预目标，以支持自闭症的社会功能。 这项提议得到了与专家指导小组共同制定的综合培训计划的支持。三 培训目标将确保申请者为过渡到未来的独立研究生涯做好充分准备 研究社会互动的神经和认知机制：(1)在 量化社会互动的神经和认知过程，(2)在社会中扩展概念训练 发展和自闭症，以及(3)促进研究传播和指导技能。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 54 children in the United States and is characterized by difficulties in initiating and maintaining social interactions, leading to negative impacts on real-world social functioning and mental health. Therefore, an important target of intervention in ASD is improving social interaction outcomes, particularly peer interactions in the sensitive time period of early adolescence. During early adolescence, children with ASD lag behind their peers in social development, yet peer relationships are an increasingly important determinant of mental health. One potential target of intervention for improving social interaction outcomes in ASD is alignment, the degree to which two or more individuals are aligned in their neural signals, behaviors, and emotions in time. Alignment includes neural similarity (the pre-existing similarity of individuals' neural response to stimuli) and interactional synchrony (the dynamic adjustments in body position and facial expressions that occur between interacting individuals). Alignment has been established as an important predictor of social interaction success in typically developing individuals, and some preliminary work has suggested that alignment may be atypical in interactions including individuals with ASD. However, alignment and its associations with social interaction outcomes have not yet been examined in early adolescent peer relationships in ASD. Furthermore, a promising mechanism of atypical interactional synchrony in ASD, atypical social attention, has not been directly tested as a mediator between diagnosis and atypical synchrony. By using ecologically valid methods to examine live social interaction behaviors and outcomes between dyads of novel peers, this proposal will test alignment as a mechanism of peer interaction challenges in ASD in real- world contexts. Two aspects of alignment, neural similarity (Aim 1) and interactional synchrony (Aim 2), will be tested as predictors of social interaction challenges in dyads including an individual with ASD. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that atypical social attention mediates the relation between ASD diagnosis and atypical interactional synchrony. Collectively, these experiments will not only examine diagnostic group differences in alignment, but also quantify the impact of alignment on real-world social interaction success, and investigate a potential mediator of relations between diagnosis and interactional synchrony. Peer interaction success in early adolescence is a key determinant of mental health, and the identification of atypical alignment as a mechanism of peer interaction challenges could lead to new targets of intervention to support social functioning in ASD. This proposal is supported by an integrated training plan developed with an expert mentorship team. Three training goals will ensure the applicant is well prepared to transition to a future independent research career investigating the neural and cognitive mechanisms of social interactions: (1) acquiring technical skills in the quantification of neural and cognitive processes of social interaction, (2) extending conceptual training in social development and ASD, and (3) furthering research dissemination and mentorship skills.