The Ontogeny of Social Visual Engagement in Infants at Risk for Autism

6.项目摘要/摘要 本项目的目标是前瞻性地研究婴幼儿社会视觉投入的发展。 自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)通过眼球跟踪技术和创新的量化 观看自然主义社交场合时的视觉注意力。我们将测量(1)视觉注视时间 (2)时间敏感的视觉扫描模式 在观看正在玩耍的婴儿时。实验数据将在2、4、6、9、12、18和24点收集 月份。235名婴儿将参加这一项目，其中包括患有 患有自闭症的高危人群(HR-ASD，N=135)；发育高危的婴儿 无自闭症家族史的延迟(HR-DD，N=50)；发育问题风险较低的儿童 预期为典型发展(LR-TD预期，N=50)。验证性诊断评估将需要 排名在36个月。主要的分析将集中在比较患有自闭症的儿童和 与DD和TD儿童的比较。考虑到ASD的家族性特征和进展的潜力 关于调节表型的研究，也将在ASD儿童的所有兄弟姐妹之间进行比较 (整个HR-ASD样本)与HR-DD和LR-TD预期组相关。 这项工作建立在我们对动态社会刺激的异常视觉注视模式的发现基础上 患有ASD的青少年(R01 HD04217)和24至36个月的儿童(U54 MH66494，耶鲁STAART)。在这两个地方 例如，对感兴趣区域(眼睛、嘴巴、身体和物体)的视觉注视总结是很强的预测因素 社会残疾的同步、标准化衡量标准。在这里，我们从两个方面扩展这项工作：(1)我们将 使用我们实验室开发的新的瞬间视觉扫描行为的群体测量方法，这些方法包括 对婴儿周围自然出现的有时间限制的社交和身体暗示特别敏感 环境；以及(2)我们将量化社会化的关键机制及其假说的个体发生 通过对一组风险较高的婴儿进行纵向研究，发现ASD早期发病机制脱轨 发展成这种疾病。我们利用了一个项目，重点是详细的临床特征 同一群人(项目1，PO1 HD003008)以及由此产生的概念和技术进步 来自我们对患有自闭症的幼儿的持续研究(项目1，P50 HD055726)。我们的规划目标 目的是：(1)研究早期的社会化机制以及这些机制在异质性中的作用。 ASD的证候表现；及(2)发展以表现为基础的措施，以预测 发育和诊断结果，并能够作为ASD风险婴儿的筛查方案。 该项目涉及NIH机构间自闭症协调委员会的几个关键行动项目， 强调婴儿的发育标志物和筛查，以及神经发育过程。7.项目叙事 在这个项目中，我们将绘制并量化从2个月到24个月的社交视觉参与度 年龄，使用视觉注视和视觉扫描的测量来研究自闭症婴儿是如何与 社交世界。通过对患有自闭症的大龄儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹的前瞻性研究，该项目将 测量随后被诊断为AND的婴儿社交参与改变的发展过程 自闭症谱系障碍。该项目的三个目标是定量诊断标志物、预测因子 结果，以及能够分析更广泛的自闭症谱系的异质性的内表型也是 美国国立卫生研究院机构间自闭症委员会的主要目标。与委员会的行动项目一样，该项目 强调婴儿的发育标志物和筛查，以及神经发育过程 因此，这与公共卫生高度相关。

6. Project Summary / Abstract The goal of this project is to study prospectively the development of social visual engagement in infants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by means of eye-tracking technology and innovative quantification of visual attention during viewing of naturalistic social situations. We will measure (1) visual fixation time during viewing of adults engaged in infant-directed approaches, and (2) temporally-sensitive visual scanning patterns during viewing of infants engaged in play. Experimental data will be collected at 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months. A cohort of 235 infants will be enrolled in this project, consisting of infant siblings of children with autism who are at High Risk for developing an ASD (HR-ASD, N=135); infants at High Risk for Developmental Delays without familial history of ASD (HR-DD, N=50); and children at Low Risk of developmental problems with Typical Development expected (LR-TDexpected, N=50). Confirmatory diagnostic assessment will take place at 36 months. The primary analyses will focus on comparisons between children who develop an ASD in comparison with DD and TD children. Given the familial nature of ASD and the potential for advancing research on mediating phenotypes, comparisons will also be made between all siblings of children with ASD (entire HR-ASD sample) in relation to the HR-DD and LR-TDexpected groups. This work builds on our findings of anomalous visual fixation patterns to dynamic social stimuli in adolescents (R01 HD04217) and in 24- to 36-month-olds (U54 MH66494, Yale STAART) with ASD. In both cases, summaries of visual fixation on regions of interest (eyes, mouth, body, & object) were strong predictors of concurrent, standardized measures of social disability. Here we extend this work in two ways: (1) we will employ novel group measures of moment-by-moment visual scanning behavior developed by our lab which are particularly sensitive to time-delimited social and physical cues occurring naturally in infants' surrounding environment; and (2) we will quantify the ontogeny of a key mechanism of socialization and its hypothesized derailment in the early pathogenesis of ASD by studying longitudinally a group of infants at greater risk for developing the disorder. We capitalize on a project focused on the detailed clinical characterization of the same cohort (Project 1, PO1 HD003008), and on the conceptual and technological advancements resulting from our continuing studies of young children with ASD (Project 1, P50 HD055726). Our programmatic goals are to (1) study early mechanisms of socialization and the role of these mechanisms in the heterogeneity of syndrome expression in ASD; and (2) to develop performance-based measures capable of predicting developmental and diagnostic outcome and able to serve as screening protocols for infants at risk for ASD. This project addresses several key action items of the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, with emphasis on developmental markers and screening in infants, and neurodevelopmental processes. 7. Project Narrative In this project we will map and quantify the unfolding of social visual engagement from 2 to 24 months of age, using measures of visual fixation and visual scanning to study how infants with autism interact with the social world. Through a prospective study of the infant siblings of older children with autism, this project will measure the developmental course of altered social engagement in infants subsequently diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The three goals of this projectquantitative diagnostic markers, predictors of outcome, and endophenotypes capable of parsing the heterogeneity of the broader autism spectrumare also key objectives of the NIH Interagency Autism Committee. Like the Committee's action items, this project emphasizes developmental markers and screening in infants, as well as neurodevelopmental processes, and is, therefore, highly relevant to public health.