The Social Neuroscience of Autism and Related Disorders

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请要求五年的合作，多学科项目研究自闭症和相关疾病的社会神经科学。这一申请是作为starart自闭症中心提交的，建立在重要的资源和研究项目之上。它关注的是增加对自闭症和相关疾病患者社会交际和社会情感功能背后的过程的理解。该基金的重点是整合神经科学和遗传学的进展，以了解特定的神经发育过程和风险因素，并将这种理解用于治疗研究。目的包括社会刺激的视觉扫描模式的特征，为有自闭症风险的幼儿开发简单的行为筛选方法，以确定与发育迟缓的儿童相比，有自闭症症状的幼儿是否表现出独特的听力偏好。评估计算机辅助面部训练在自闭症中的潜在效用，目的是提高面部感知技能，增强fMRI面部表情和视觉扫描规范化所看到的梭状回面部区域活动。此外，我们建议在一项随机双盲、安慰剂对照试验中，对患有PDD的儿童和青少年的焦虑障碍，特别是社交焦虑障碍的性质进行表征，并评估选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂氟福沙明的效果。最后，我们计划进行一系列相关的遗传研究，以确定社会残疾的遗传机制。提出了六个项目和两个核心资源。项目包括：(I)自闭症婴幼儿社交参与的眼动追踪研究；（II）自闭症幼儿联合注意的行为指标；（III）自闭症及相关障碍的社会沟通前兆；（IV）自闭症社会表型的分子和家族遗传研究；(V)面部识别的行为和神经可塑性；（VI）氟伏沙明治疗儿童和青少年社交焦虑障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests five years of support for a collaborative, multidisciplinary program of research on social neuroscience in autism and related disorders. This application, submitted as a STAART autism center, builds on important resources and research programs. It is concerned with increasing the understanding of the processes underlying the social-communicative and social-affective functioning of individuals with autism and related conditions. The focus of the grant is on integrating advances in neuroscience and genetics in understanding specific neurodevelopmental processes and risk factors and using this understanding in treatment studies. Objectives include characterization of visual scanning patterns of social stimuli, development of simple behavioral screening methods for young children at risk for autism, to determine whether young children with symptoms of autism display distinctive listening preferences as compared to developmentally delayed children, to assess the potential utility of computer assisted face training in autism with a goal of improving face perception skills and enhancing fusiform face area activity as seen on fMRI facial expression and normalization of visual scanning. In addition we propose to characterize the nature of anxiety disorders, particularly social anxiety disorder, in children and adolescents with PDD and to evaluate the effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, fluvoxamine, in a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Finally we plan to conduct a series of interrelated genetic studies with the overarching aim of identifying genetic mechanisms of social disability. Six projects and two core resources are proposed. Projects include: (I) Eye tracking studies of social engagement in infants and toddlers with autism, (II) Behavioral indices of joint attention in autism in young children, (III) Precursors to social communication in autism and related disorder, (IV) Molecular and family genetic studies of social phenotypes in autism, (V) Behavioral and neural plasticity in face recognition, and (VI) Fluvoxamine in the treatment of children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder.