Infant Social Development: From Brain to Behavior

 描述（由申请人提供）：使用神经成像技术来寻找自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和相关社交困难的生物标志物将允许早期检测风险：识别哪些婴儿需要预防性治疗的关键组成部分。神经影像学也可以提供一种比仅关注可观察行为更敏感的预测和评估治疗反应的方法。然而，我们首先需要提高对典型大脑发育的理解，以确定预测社会行为个体差异的神经标记。这些神经标志物可以成为ASD生物标志物研究的目标。更好地理解与ASD和相关社会困难相关的神经差异将有助于指导与缺陷的生物学领域紧密匹配的治疗的开发，并为利用神经成像来预测和治疗自闭症的研究提供有希望的感兴趣区域。 评估治疗反应。目前的建议是一个多层次的（脑功能和行为），纵向神经影像学研究的60个典型的发展婴儿在社会发展的关键时期。该研究将利用功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）来测量6个月大时对新的（现场社交互动）和经过充分验证的（生物运动）社交刺激的大脑功能。然后将识别的社交刺激的神经相关性应用于预测这些婴儿在12个月时社交功能关键领域的个体差异。申请人的首要职业目标是进行研究，有助于防止社会情感功能的缺陷，直到他们达到临床损害水平。申请人将在社会认知和自闭症谱系障碍的神经生物学领域的领先研究员的指导下接受神经影像技术的强化培训。该项目结合了使用行为和神经成像技术的临床和发展研究，将为受训者提供一个理想的工具，使其成为转化发展神经科学领域的独立研究人员，从而使她的研究计划有助于弥合社会发展，神经系统和临床研究之间的差距。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Using neuroimaging techniques to find biomarkers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related social difficulties will allow for earlier detection of risk: a critical component of identifying which infants need preventive treatment. Neuroimaging may also offer a more sensitive method of predicting and assessing treatment response than focusing only on observable behavior. However, we first need to improve our understanding of typical brain development to identify neural markers that predict individual differences in social behaviors. These neural markers can then become targets for the study of biomarkers of ASD. Better understanding the neural differences associated with ASD and related social difficulties will help to guide the development of treatments that are closely matched to biological areas of deficit and provide promising regions of interest for studies utilizing neuroimaging to predict and assess treatment response. The current proposal is a multi-level (brain function and behavior), longitudinal neuroimaging study of 60 typically developing infants during a critical period in social development. The study will utilize functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain functioning in response to both novel (live social interaction) and well-validated (biological motion) social stimuli at 6 months of age. Identified neural correlates of social stimui will then be applied to predict individual differences in key areas of social functioning in these same infants at 12 months. The applicant's overarching career goal is to conduct research that helps to prevent deficits in social- emotional functioning before they reach clinically impairing levels. The proposed fellowship training is an integral step in this career path. The applicant wil receive intensive training in developmental neuroimaging techniques under the mentorship of a leading researcher in the neurobiology of social cognition and ASD. This project, which combines clinical and developmental research using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, will provide an ideal vehicle for the trainee to develop as an independent researcher in the field of translational developmental neuroscience, so that her research program can help bridge the gaps between social development, neural systems, and clinical research.