Social-Emotional Development of Infants At Risk for Autism Spectrum

描述（由申请人提供）：患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹在社交交流结果上表现出很大的差异：一些表现出与自闭症谱系诊断一致的行为，另一些则表现出不太严重的症状，例如语言迟缓，另一些则没有发现可检测到的障碍。这个范德比尔特-迈阿密的跨站点项目将研究特定注意力和情感机制的早期损伤（这两者都是自闭症的假定核心缺陷）在多大程度上解释了在这些高危儿童中观察到的行为异质性。我们特别关注注意力协调和积极情感能力领域，并检查它们在出生后头两年（即 6 至 18 个月）的发展情况以及它们与后来 24 个月和 36 个月时社交和沟通结果的关系。总体假设是，这些领域在头两年内将存在发展连续性，这些领域的早期差异在自闭症谱系障碍高风险和低风险群体之间将很明显，并且早期损伤将预测在后来出生的自闭症兄弟姐妹中观察到的社交和沟通结果的个体差异。具体的研究领域包括生命第一年二元和三元环境中积极情感能力之间的关系、早期积极情感能力和注意力协调对生命第二年积极联合注意力能力出现的贡献，以及早期积极情感能力和注意力协调的个体差异对后来的自闭症症状的影响程度。该前瞻性纵向项目将比较 200 名被诊断患有 ASD 的儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹 (Sib-ASD) 和 100 名正常发育儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹 (Sib-TD) 的发育轨迹和结果。分割面板纵向设计将使我们能够检查 6 个月至 36 个月大的年龄组内和跨年龄组的发育情况。该项目采用了婴儿行为的新颖方法和测量，包括电生理学和眼球追踪测量、积极情感交流和表征的测量，以及与他人分享关于物体的积极情绪的纵向测量。纵向结构方程模型和混合建模程序用于评估典型发育和高危兄弟姐妹的发育差异，并预测自闭症谱系障碍儿童高危兄弟姐妹结果的异质性。该项目采用发展精神病理学的视角来阐明通往异质结果的规范和受干扰的纵向路径。公共卫生相关性：对自闭症儿童的弟弟妹妹进行的前瞻性研究提供了一个理想的机会来了解自闭症的最早迹象以及更广泛的自闭症表型的发展、表现和界限。这些信息对于了解自闭症的原因以及开发更有效和有针对性的治疗方法至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infant siblings of children with ASD exhibit substantial variability in their social-communicative outcomes: some manifest behaviors consistent with an autism spectrum diagnosis, others exhibit less severe symptoms such as language delay, and others evidence no detectable disorder. This cross-site, Vanderbilt- Miami project will examine the extent to which early impairments in specific attentional and affective mechanisms - both of which are putative core deficits of autism - explain the behavioral heterogeneity that is observed in these high-risk children. We focus specifically on the domains of attention coordination and positive affective competencies, and examine their development across the first two years of postnatal life (i.e., from 6 to 18 months) and their relation to later social and communicative outcomes at age 24 and 36 months. The overarching hypotheses are that there will be developmental continuity in these domains across the first two years, that early differences in these domains will be evident between groups at high- and low-risk for ASD, and that early impairments will predict individual differences in social and communicative outcomes observed in later-born ASD siblings. Specific areas of investigation include the relation between positive affective competencies in dyadic and triadic contexts across the first year of life, the contributions of early positive affective competencies and attention coordination to the emergence of positive joint attention competencies in the second year of life, and the extent to which individual differences in early positive affective competencies and attention coordination contribute to later autism symptomatology. This prospective longitudinal project will compare developmental trajectories and outcomes in 200 infant siblings of children diagnosed with ASD (Sib-ASD) and 100 infant siblings of typically developing children (Sib-TD). A split panel longitudinal design will allow us to examine development both within- and across- age-group cohorts from 6 months to 36 months of age. This project employs novel methods and measurement of infant behavior including electrophysiological and eye tracking measures, measures of positive affect communication and representation, and longitudinal measures of sharing positive emotion about objects with others. Longitudinal structural equation modeling and mixed modeling procedures are utilized to assess differences in the development of typically developing and at- risk siblings and to predict heterogeneity in the outcomes of the at-risk siblings of children with ASD. The project employs a developmental psychopathology perspective to shed light on normative and disturbed longitudinal pathways toward heterogenous outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The prospective study of younger siblings of children with ASD offers an ideal opportunity to learn about the earliest signs of autism as well as the development, manifestation, and boundaries of the broader autism phenotype. This information is critical for understanding the causes of autism and for developing more effective and targeted treatments.