DETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN AUTISM

该计划项目的目的是确定生物和 社会沟通缺陷和技能的环境因素 自闭症。这个项目将研究遗传、大脑机制和 环境因素与自闭症的鉴别 个人与他人的区别以及对个人差异的解释 在自闭症患者组中。将使用的方法如下： 1)对社会的前兆、关联和后果的调查 自闭症儿童和青少年的沟通技能；2)和 一项旨在改变幼儿社交能力的实验 自闭症儿童；3)自闭症高危个体的基因研究 以及与之相关的社会交际障碍 重复部分15号染色体[invdup(15)]；和4)比较 在参与交流的过程中激活的神经网络， 包括对面孔、情绪和韵律的识别和反应， 对患有自闭症和非自闭症的青少年和年轻人进行功能磁共振成像 自闭症语言障碍。这些研究的结果将会 立竿见影的规划干预，优化发展 对自闭症儿童的影响以及对发现病因和 参与这种紊乱的机制。

The purpose of this program project is to determine the biological and environmental contributors to social communicative deficits and skills in autism. This project will investigate genetic, brain mechanisms, and environmental factors with a focus both on differentiating autistic individuals from others and also on accounting for individual differences within the autistic group. The approaches to be used are as follows: 1) an investigation of precursors, correlates, and consequences of social communicative skills in autistic children and adolescents; 2) an experiment aimed at changing social communicative skills in very young children with autism; 3) a genetic study of individuals at risk of autism and associated social communicative deficits because of inverted duplication portion chromosome 15 [invdup(15)]; and 4) a comparison of the neural networks activated in processes involved in communication, including recognition and response to faces, emotions, and prosody, using fMRI with adolescents and young adults with autism and non- autistic language impairment. The results of these studies will have immediate impact on planning intervention to optimize the development of autistic children and long-term impact on discovering the causes and mechanisms involved in the disorder.