Exploratory investigation of bilingualism, executive function, and brain organization in children with autism

项目摘要 自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)与明显的异质性有关 执行功能(EF)能力。在美国，1200万儿童主要说一种不同于 这表明，四分之一的自闭症儿童是在双语环境中长大的。 能流利地说两种语言的人有时在EF任务中的表现要好于只会一种语言的人 个人。尽管双语可能会带来潜在的优势，但临床医生通常 建议不要为发育障碍儿童提供双语环境。其基本原理是 这个建议是，专注于一门语言应该更好地支持孩子的语言 发展。然而，越来越多的研究表明，在双语环境中长大并没有负面影响 为患有神经发育障碍的儿童提供环境。初步证据甚至表明有可能 一些ASD儿童的双语能力与EF升高之间的关系。然而，几乎没有研究。 具体到ASD儿童的双语能力，让临床医生难以培养知情 对患有这种疾病的儿童的家庭的建议。目前，还没有研究表明 自闭症儿童双语能力、EF能力与脑网络组织的关系这 Project将首次调查这些链接。本探索性项目将研究EF的神经基础。 在50名8-12岁的单语和双语儿童中，有两个目标：1) 利用告密者描述自闭症儿童双语能力与EF能力的关系--报告 EF和基于绩效的实验室任务的指标，以及2)表征 自闭症儿童在两种任务下的双语能力和脑功能组织 基于功能磁共振成像和静息状态功能连接动力学。该项目将在洛杉矶进行， 那里近60%的人口会说两种语言。本研究从三个方面阐述了战略规划 机构间自闭症协调委员会渴望了解自闭症患者大脑功能的变化 更好地促进制定有针对性的干预措施和社会适应措施，以提高 光谱上的个体的生活。

Project Summary Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with marked heterogeneity with respect to the development of executive function (EF) abilities. In the United States, 12 million children primarily speak a language other than English in the home, suggesting that 1 in 4 children with ASD are being raised in a bilingual environment. Individuals who speak two languages fluently sometimes perform better on tasks of EF than monolingual individuals. Despite the potential advantages that bilingualism may confer, clinical practitioners commonly advise against providing a bilingual environment for children with developmental disabilities. The rationale for this recommendation is that concentrating on one language should better support a child’s language development. Yet, a growing body of work suggests there are no negative effects of being raised in a bilingual environment for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Preliminary evidence even suggests possible associations between bilingualism and enhanced EF in some children with ASD. Still, there is little research specific to bilingualism in children with ASD, leaving clinicians struggling to develop informed recommendations for families of children with the disorder. Currently, there is no research characterizing the relationship between bilingualism, EF abilities, and brain network organization in children with ASD. This project will investigate these links for the first time. This exploratory project will examine the neural basis of EF in 50 monolingual and 50 bilingual children with ASD between the ages of 8-12 years with two aims: 1) to characterize associations between bilingualism and EF abilities in children with ASD using an informant-report indicator of EF and performance-based laboratory tasks, and 2) to characterize associations between bilingualism and brain functional organization underlying EF abilities in children with ASD using both task- based fMRI and resting-state functional connectivity dynamics. The project will be conducted in Los Angeles, where nearly 60% of the population is bilingual. This research addresses the strategic plan from the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee that aspires to understand alterations in brain function in ASD to better enable the development of targeted interventions and societal accommodations that improve quality of life for individuals on the spectrum.