Sensory Processing and Integration in Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：多感觉输入的非典型整合被认为是自闭症的主要组成部分，有一些临床和行为为基础的经验支持这一观点。在神经处理流中，这些感觉统合缺陷发生的位置和时间尚不清楚，了解这一点对于定义自闭症的神经病理学至关重要。事实上，对于正常发育儿童健康感觉统合机制的基本发展，人们知之甚少，尽管最近在动物模型上的工作开始有所揭示。在这个项目中，我们将使用我们在健康成年人的实验室中开发的多感觉整合的既定电生理指标，来测试自闭症患者多感觉整合受损的假设。我们记录的神经活动的高密度电记录将提供一个精确的测量，在信息处理流中，感觉整合何时与典型的发展匹配的控制不同，以及一个受影响的潜在大脑过程的良好模型。我们期望对多感觉输入的处理方式有深远的发展影响，因此我们也将使用横断面方法描述典型发育儿童多感觉整合的“正常”发展轨迹。关于自闭症患者的多感觉过程在何时何地受到影响的具体假设是基于这一人群中远端皮层区域之间的连通性很差这一论点，我们的预测是基于一个基本的多感觉整合三阶段模型，这个模型是我们根据现有文献发展起来的。本项目获得的数据将为自闭症多感觉整合过程的缺陷提供强有力的实证检验。了解多感觉统合在儿童时期是如何发展和变化的，将为多感觉统合的模型提供重要的信息，并提供一个初步的基准，根据该基准，可以对许多发育障碍中可能出现的多感觉统合障碍进行预测。公共卫生相关性：感觉模式整合的失败被认为是许多临床人群的核心缺陷，特别是在自闭症谱系障碍中，但也在精神分裂症中。为了理解这类患者的感觉整合是如何出错的，我们必须首先清楚地了解健康的大脑是如何整合来自环境的听觉、视觉和体感输入的。本项目旨在描述6 - 15岁儿童大脑皮层多感觉处理背后的神经生理过程的发展轨迹，并测试自闭症儿童多感觉处理的完整性。这一结果将对自闭症患者的临床管理以及自闭症模型产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Atypical integration of multisensory inputs has been suggested as a major component of autism, with some clinical and behavior-based empirical support for this view. Where and when in the neural processing stream these sensory integration deficits occur is as yet unknown, and gaining an understanding of this will be essential in defining the neuropathology of autism. In fact, there is precious little understanding of the basic development of healthy sensory integration mechanisms in typically developing children, although recent work in animal models is beginning to shed some light. Under this project, we will use established electrophysiological metrics of multisensory integration that we have developed in our laboratory in healthy adults, to test the hypothesis that multisensory integration is impaired in autism. The high-density electrical recordings of neural activity that we record will provide a precise measure of when in the information processing stream sensory integration differs from typically developing matched controls, as well as a good model of the underlying brain processes that are affected. We expect that there are profound developmental effects on how multisensory inputs are treated and we will therefore also characterize the "normal" developmental trajectory of multisensory integration in typically developing children, using a cross-sectional approach. Specific hypotheses about when and where multisensory processes will be affected in autism are made based on the thesis that there is impoverished connectivity between distant cortical regions in this population, and our predictions are predicated on a rudimentary three-stage model of multisensory integration that we have developed in light of the extant literature. The data acquired under this project will provide a strong empirical test of deficits in multisensory integration processes in autism. Understanding how multisensory integration develops and changes over childhood will significantly inform models of multisensory integration, and provide an initial benchmark against which predictions about possible disordered multisensory integration in a host of developmental disorders can be made. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The failure of integration across the sensory modalities is thought to be a core deficit in a number of clinical populations, especially in autism spectrum disorders but also in schizophrenia. In order to understand how it is that sensory integration goes awry in such patients, we must first develop a clear understanding of how the healthy brain integrates auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from the environment. This project sets out to delineate the developmental trajectory of the neurophysiological processes underlying multisensory processing in the human cortex in children from 6 to 15 years of age, and to test the integrity of multisensory processes in children with autism. The results will have implications both for the clinical management of individuals with autism, as well as for models of autism.