Physiology of Attention and Regulation in Children with ASD and LD

描述(由申请人提供)：了解导致自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)儿童社交和沟通能力异质性的因素是设计个性化干预措施和预测发展轨迹的关键一步。由于注意力导致社交和沟通发展的典型差异，而注意力在自闭症患者中往往是非典型的，因此，注意力可能导致自闭症儿童社交和沟通技能的差异，并可能预测儿童早期的社交沟通发展。事实上，美国国立卫生研究院呼吁对注意力在自闭症患者的社交和交流发展中的作用进行纵向调查。然而，虽然共同注意在自闭症患者的社会交际发展中是至关重要的，但对其他注意领域在形成这些轨迹中所起的作用却知之甚少。这项研究考察了自闭症儿童、神经典型发育儿童(NT)和自闭症儿童的弟弟妹妹在一系列注意领域的表现是否会导致社交和沟通技能的差异。这项研究考察了9个月到48个月大的婴儿的注意力与社交和沟通能力之间的关系。本项目涉及三项研究：(1)2-4岁ASD和NT儿童的注意力和心血管反应性。该项目将通过为期六个月和一年的后续评估，研究幼儿社交技能中的注意力和调节之间的关系，以及对社交成长的预测。(2)自闭症儿童年幼兄弟姐妹的社交和语言结果。在自闭症儿童的年幼兄弟姐妹中，该项目将研究婴儿时期的注意力和调节能力与儿童早期的社交和语言技能之间的关系。最初在6个月、12个月和18个月进行测试的婴儿兄弟姐妹将在36个月时进行随访。这个项目将集中在早期的注意力技能以及它们与后来的注意力、调节、社交和语言能力的关系。(3)从婴儿期到儿童期的注意力和心血管反应。未来对高危人群的评估需要设计对关键领域的评估，以便在症状出现前、症状出现期间以及可以形成稳定诊断时对个人进行评估。本项目将在9至48个月大的神经典型婴儿和24至48个月大的自闭症儿童的样本中，检查用于表征注意阶段的测量的稳定性和可靠性，以及它们对社交和非社交领域的特征注意、空间注意和联合注意的贡献。总之，我们认为，注意力和心血管反应性的测量可能是社交沟通发展轨迹的预测因子，也是个性化干预目标的指标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Understanding the factors underlying the heterogeneity of social and communicative abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a critical step toward designing individualized interventions and predicting developmental trajectories. As attention contributes to typical variation in social and communicative development, and attention is often atypical in individuals with ASD, it is possible that attention contributes to the variance in social and communication skills found in young children with ASD, and may predict social- communication growth in early childhood. Indeed, NIH has called for longitudinal investigations of the role of attention in shaping social and communication development in autism. However, whilst joint attention is known to be critical in socio-communicative development in ASD, little is known about the role of other domains of attention in shaping these trajectories. This proposal examines whether performance in a range of attention domains contribute to variability in social and communication skill in young children with ASD, children with neurotypical development (NT), and younger siblings of children with ASD. The study examines the relations between attention and social and communication skill between 9- and 48- months of age. This project involves three studies: (1) Attention and Cardiovascular Reactivity in Children aged 2 to 4 years with ASD and NT. This project will examine the relation between attention and regulation in social- communication skills in early childhood and prediction of social-communication growth through six-month and one-year follow-up assessments. (2) Social-communication and Language Outcomes in Younger Siblings of Children with ASD. In younger siblings of children with autism, the project will examine the relations between attention and regulation in infancy and social-communication and language skills in early childhood. Infant siblings who were initially tested at 6-, 12- and 18-months will be followed up at 36 months. This project will focus on early attention skills and their relation to later attention, regulation, social-communication, and language ability. (3) Attention and Cardiovascular Reactivity from Infancy to Childhood. Future assessments of high-risk populations requires that assessments of critical domains be designed to assess individuals during pre-symptomatic phases, during the emergence of symptoms as well as when stable diagnoses can be formed. This project will examine the stability and reliability of the measures used to characterize the phases of attention, and their contribution to feature attention, spatial attention and joint attention, in both social and non- social domains in a sample of neurotypical infants between 9 and 48 months of age and children with ASD between 24 and 48 months of age. In summary, we propose that measures of attention and cardiovascular reactivity may be predictors of social-communication growth trajectories and indicators of targets for individualized intervention.