UW Autism Research Center of Excellence

UW STAART中心将实现以下总体目标： (1)确定自闭症儿童的社会、语言、神经心理和电生理特征，以区别于发育迟缓儿童和发育典型儿童。这种研究将增强我们在生命早期识别自闭症的能力，以便自闭症儿童能够尽早得到帮助，并改善他们的长期结果(项目I和项目II)。(2)评估早期强化行为干预对改善自闭症儿童预后的效果，并确定儿童神经认知因素是否会影响早期干预的效果。 这些知识将为关于个体化干预的决策提供依据，阐明大脑机制，并阐明与大脑可塑性相关的问题(项目I)。(3)与发育迟缓儿童和发育正常儿童比较，研究自闭症幼儿的脑结构异常(通过核磁共振成像)和脑化学异常(通过磁共振波谱)，以增加我们对自闭症神经生物学基础的了解(项目III)。(4)利用事件相关脑电位和功能磁共振成像研究高功能自闭症患者的核心社会认知障碍，以加深对自闭症认知神经科学的理解。这一信息与早期识别、开发更精细的干预措施和测量数量遗传性状有关(项目IV)。(5)进行针对自闭症基因发现的分子生物学研究。确定自闭症的易感基因对于早期识别、预防和医疗非常重要(项目V)。

The UW STAART Center will address the following overall objectives: (1) To determine social, linguistic, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological characteristics that distinguish very young children with autism from children with developmental delay and those with typical development. Such research will enhance our ability to recognize autism early in life so that children with autism can be helped as early as possible, and their long-term outcome can be improved (Projects I and II). (2) To assess the efficacy of early intensive behavioral intervention for improving outcomes for children with autism, and to determine whether child neurocognitive factors moderate the effects of early intervention. Such knowledge will inform decisions regarding individualized interventions, elucidate brain mechanisms, and shed light on questions related to brain plasticity (Project I). (3) To increase our understanding of the neurobiological bases of autism by studying abnormalities in brain structure (via magnetic resonance imaging) and brain chemistry (via magnetic resonance spectroscopy) in very young children with autism, as compared to children with developmental delay and those with typical development (Project III). (4) To enhance our understanding of the cognitive neuroscience of autism by studying core social cognition impairments in high-functioning individuals with autism using event related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. This information is relevant for early identification, development of more refined interventions, and measurement of quantitative genetic traits (Project IV). (5) To conduct molecular biology studies aimed at gene discovery in autism. Identification of susceptibility genes in autism is important for early identification, prevention, and medical treatment (Project V).