Biological and Information Processing Mechanisms Underlying Autism

该中心致力于阐明导致自闭症的基本信息处理和神经生物学机制。它包含 5 个主题：1）自闭症是一种复杂信息处理能力障碍，但基本能力完整或增强； 2）自闭症是一种大脑连接障碍，表现为远距离连接的连接不足和补偿性局部连接的连接过度； 3）自闭症作为一种发育障碍，其大脑行为表现随着从儿童到成年的大脑成熟的每个阶段而变化； 4）从潜在的信息处理机制角度可以最好地理解特有的社会障碍； 5) 情绪和情感障碍是该综合征的主要组成部分，也是导致功能障碍和严重行为问题的重要因素。这些目标将通过对婴儿兄弟姐妹、首次诊断患有自闭症的幼儿以及患有或不患有自闭症的儿童、青少年和成人群体的行为、认知、功能磁共振成像、DTI、DTT 和神经病理学研究来实现。项目一：低功能和高功能自闭症分类和面部知识的发展；项目二：情感接触障碍：大脑情感处理机制的发展；项目三：系统连接与大脑激活：语言与感知的影像研究；项目 IV：脑微结构和纤维通路的扩散张量 MRI 和组织病理学。项目一的重点是了解自闭症的最早表现和早期诊断工具的开发；它还关注社会和认知症状背后的信息处理机制。项目二侧重于阐明情绪处理机制以及从童年到成年的成熟障碍；这些研究将阐明自闭症患者如何体验、理解和调节情绪，并将检验他们对情绪的自我意识。情绪的基因修饰因素也将被确定。项目 III 的重点是了解大脑功能连接的紊乱，这些紊乱是信息处理受损以及自闭症认知和行为障碍的基础。该项目还包括关于大脑如何识别和分类单词以及皮质功能计算模型的创新机器学习研究。项目 IV 着眼于特定白质通路的结构连通性以及皮质内白质投射的组织病理学。该项目将有助于协调自闭症的功能性连接不足和早期结构性过度生长。识别自闭症行为背后的基本信息处理机制将导致制定更具体和有效的干预措施；同样，识别连接改变可以导致有针对性的认知干预，从而增加神经连接。这项研究涉及自闭症研究矩阵目标#1、2、3、6、16、17、19、22、23、26、31和34。

This center focuses on elucidating fundamental information processing and neurobiological mechanisms causing autism. It incorporates 5 themes: 1) autism as a disorder of complex information processing abilities WITH intact or enhanced basic abilities; 2) autism as a disturbance in cerebral connectivity with under connectivity of long-distance connections and over-connectivity of compensatory local connections; 3) autism as a developmental disorder whose brain-behavioral manifestations change with each stage of brain maturation from childhood to adulthood; 4) that the pathognomonic social impairments are best understood in terms of underlying information processing mechanisms; and 5) that emotional and affective impairments are a major component of the syndrome and significant contributor to impaired function and serious behavior issues. These goals will be addressed using behavioral, cognitive, fMRI, DTI, DTT, and neuropathologic studies of: infant siblings, first-diagnosed toddlers with autism, and groups of children, adolescents, and adults with and without autism. Project I: Development of Categorization & Facial Knowledge in Low & High Functioning Autism; Project II: Disturbances of Affective Contact: Development of Brain Mechanisms for Emotion Processing; Project III: Systems Connectivity & Brain Activation: Imaging Studies of Language & Perception; Project IV: Diffusion Tensor MRI & Histopathology of Brain Microstructure & Fiber Pathways. Project I focuses on understanding the earliest manifestations of autism and the development of earlier diagnostic tools; it also focuses on information processing mechanisms underlying social and cognitive symptoms. Project II focuses on elucidating emotion processing mechanisms and the maturational disturbances from childhood through adulthood; these studies will clarify how individuals with autism experience, understand and regulate emotion, and will also examine their self-awareness of emotion. Genetic modifiers of emotionality will also be determined. Project III focuses on understanding disturbances in functional brain connectivity that underlie the impaired processing of information and in turn the cognitive and behavioral impairments in autism. The project also includes innovative machine-learning studies of how the brain identifies and categorizes words and computational modeling of cortical function. Project IV looks at structural connectivity of specific white matter pathways and the histopathology of intra-cortical white matter projections. This project will help reconcile the functional under-connectivity and early structural overgrowth in autism. The identification of fundamental information processing mechanisms underlying the behavior of autism will lead to the development of more specific and effective interventions; similarly identification of connectivity alterations can lead to targeted cognitive interventions that increase neural connectivity. This research addresses Autism Research Matrix goals # 1,2,3,6,16,17,19,22,23,26,31,and 34.