Development of brain structure supporting face learning in infants at risk for autism

项目摘要 自闭症是一种广泛性发育障碍，其特征是社会认知受损， 早在6个月大的时候，大脑结构的差异就出现了， 检测到并可导致诊断。在大脑中呈现这些早期变化的区域是梭状核 脑回，腹侧视觉通路的一部分，包含梭状面区（FFA）。FFA对于 识别面孔，并在其结构中发生变化，以响应对面孔的经验依赖性学习， 这在婴儿第一年暴露于看护者的面部时是普遍存在的。这种对面孔的早期认知 构成了社会认知赖以建立的基本的原始社会技能。FFA的定义是 使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）对面部的功能反应进行了研究，这使得其在婴儿中的研究具有挑战性，因为他们 通常不能在清醒时扫描。然而，一个可靠的解剖标志，中间梭状沟， (MFS)，指定FFA在迄今为止研究的80%以上的大脑中的位置。平均深度和峰值深度 其他研究表明，皮质沟以及沟库中皮质的厚度可以预测 皮质的功能特性。因此，我们将使用一个丰富的公共资源，IBIS数据集， 包括在6个月、12个月和24个月时对患有自闭症的高风险和低风险婴儿进行结构MRI扫描， 研究MFS和周围皮质的结构在目的一，我们将描述其典型的纵向 在目标II中，我们将测试其结构和发展轨迹的组差异， 其结构与社会沟通的临床测量的预测性关联， 社会化这个项目的结果将阐明早期视觉经验的发展时间 与社会技能发展有关，并有可能导致一种反映早期面部的新生物标志物。 学习能力可以为早期干预方法提供新的目标。

Project Summary Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that is characterized by impaired social cognition, with global differences in brain structure that emerge as early as 6 months of age, years before symptoms are typically detected and can lead to a diagnosis. Among the brain regions that exhibit these early changes is the fusiform gyrus, part of the ventral visual pathway that contains the fusiform face area (FFA). The FFA is important for recognizing faces and undergoes changes in its structure in response to experience-dependent learning of faces, which is ubiquitous in the first year when infants are exposed to caregivers’ faces. This early learning of faces constitutes a foundational proto-social skill upon which social cognition builds. The FFA is defined by its functional response to faces using functional MRI (fMRI), making its study in young infants challenging as they usually cannot be scanned while awake. However, a reliable anatomical landmark, the mid-fusiform sulcus (MFS), specifies the location of FFA in over 80% of brains studied to date. The average and peak depth of cortical sulci, as well as the thickness of cortex in their banks, have been shown in other studies to predict functional properties of the cortex. Thus, we will use a rich publicly available resource, the IBIS dataset, which comprises structural MRI scans at 6, 12, and 24 months from infants at high and low risk of developing autism, to investigate the structure of the MFS and surrounding cortex. In Aim I, we will characterize its typical longitudinal development, and in Aim II, we will test for group differences in its structure and the developmental trajectory of its growth and predictive association of its structure with clinical measures of social communication and socialization. The outcome of this project will shed light on the developmental timing of early visual experience related to social skills development, and has the potential to lead to a novel biomarker reflecting early face learning ability that could provide a new target for early intervention approaches.