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

项目概要/摘要 自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）影响美国54名儿童中的1名，其特征是困难 在启动和维持社会互动，导致对现实世界的社会功能的负面影响， 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， 特别是在青春期早期的敏感时期的同伴互动。在青春期早期， ASD儿童在社会发展方面落后于同龄人，但同伴关系越来越多， 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，两个或更多个人在他们的神经信号中对齐的程度， 行为和情绪。对齐包括神经相似性（个体的预先存在的相似性）。 神经对刺激的反应）和间歇同步（身体位置和面部表情的动态调整 发生在相互作用的个体之间的表达）。调整已被确立为一个重要的 预测社会交往的成功，在典型的发展中国家的个人，和一些初步的工作， 表明，对齐可能是非典型的互动，包括个人与ASD。然而， 它与社会交往结果的关系尚未在早期青少年同龄人中进行过研究。 在ASD的关系。此外，在ASD中，非典型性间期同步的一种有希望的机制， 社会关注，尚未直接测试诊断和非典型同步之间的中介。通过 使用生态学有效的方法来研究生活中的社会互动行为和结果之间的二元关系， 新的同行，这项建议将测试对齐作为一种机制，同侪互动的挑战，在ASD在真实的- 世界背景。对齐的两个方面，神经相似性（目标1）和神经元间同步性（目标2），将在 测试作为预测的社会互动的挑战，在二人组，包括一个人与ASD。目标3将测试 非典型社会注意力介导ASD诊断与非典型 间歇同步总的来说，这些实验不仅将检查诊断组的差异， 对齐，而且还量化对齐对现实世界社交互动成功的影响，并调查 诊断和间歇同步之间的关系的潜在调解人。早期同伴互动成功 青春期是心理健康的一个关键决定因素， 同伴互动的挑战可能会导致新的干预目标，以支持ASD的社会功能。 这一建议得到了与一个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人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）获得技术技能， 社会互动的神经和认知过程的量化，（2）扩大社会概念训练， 发展和ASD，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.