Illuminating brain function during imitation in children with ASD with DOT

DOT 揭示自闭症儿童模仿过程中的大脑功能

• 批准号: 10452280
• 负责人: Adam Thomas Eggebrecht
• 金额: $ 25.32万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-15 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10452280
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Affect; Age; Age-Months; Basic Science; Behavior; Behavior Therapy; Behavioral; Biological Markers; Brain; Brain imaging; Child; Child Development; Childhood; Clinic; Clinical; Clinical Research; Clip; Code; Data; Data Collection; Development; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Discrimination; Early Intervention; Educational Intervention; Environment; Exploratory/Developmental Grant; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; General Population; Genetic; Goals; Home; Human; Image; Impairment; Institutes; Intervention; Language; Literature; Measures; Mental disorders; Methods; Mission; Monitor; Morphologic artifacts; Motion; Motor; Movement; National Institute of Mental Health; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Nursery Schools; Participant; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Performance; Phenotype; Play; Prevention; Psychopathology; Quality of life; Recovery; Reporting; Research; Rest; Risk; Risk Marker; Role; Scanning; School-Age Population; Schools; Sensory; Severities; Social Development; Social Interaction; Symptoms; System; Techniques; Technology; Therapeutic Intervention; Toddler; Video Games; autism spectrum disorder; autistic; autistic children; base; behavioral impairment; brain behavior; cognitive capacity; computerized; density; diffuse optical tomography; flexibility; functional MRI scan; functional near infrared spectroscopy; imaging study; improved; improved outcome; individuals with autism spectrum disorder; innovation; interest; joint attention; limb movement; motor impairment; movie; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; nonhuman primate; novel; optical imaging; patient subsets; phenotypic biomarker; programs; relating to nervous system; repetitive behavior; response; skill acquisition; skills; social; social attachment; social communication; social communication impairment; social metrics; social reciprocity; social skills; visual motor; visual-motor integration

Project Summary / Abstract The long-term goal of these studies is to advance high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) methods for evaluating brain-behavior relationships in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and toddlers at risk for developing ASD while they imitate novel gross motor movements within a naturalistic setting. We are submitting this application in response to FOA: PA-21-200, Research on Autism Spectrum Disorders. In typical development, imitation is associated with the emergence of several behaviors crucial to normal social interaction and communication, including joint attention, play initiation, social affiliation, and prosocial behaviors. Indeed, patterns of impaired imitation, and visual-motor integration (VMI) more generally, have been observed across a wide range of children with ASD, with imitation ability being associated with social-communicative skills in ASD. A challenge in developing imitation as a phenotypic biomarker is the lack of understanding of the neural mechanisms contributing to imitation deficits in ASD, and the variable results in the neuroimaging literature. The mixed findings may be due to the significant limitations in assessing motor imitation in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning environment where there are severe restrictions on motion. This disconnect between consistent behavioral differences in children with ASD and the variable neuroimaging literature motivated the current proposal to use instead HD-DOT during motor imitation. HD-DOT provides a compelling alternative that overcomes the significant ergonomic limitations of fMRI and silently images brain function with a wearable cap in a naturalistic setting ideal for studies on gross motor movement and imitation in both school- aged children and toddlers. The proposed program of research is highly innovative, transformative, and has the potential to elucidate underlying mechanisms, inform clinical interventions, and improve outcome of ASD. As such, this research is harmonious with the mission of NIMH: to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure. Early behavioral and educational interventions, starting at 18-48 months of age, improve outcomes in a subset of patients. Neuroimaging methods have demonstrated sensitivity to neural signatures of ASD that may inform diagnosis and track responses to interventions. Here we propose to forge new paths with a dual-armed study of brain function directly underlying motor movement in school- and pre-school-aged children with ASD. Specifically, we will measure neural signatures while participants perform naturalistic motor imitation and movement observation. These data may provide markers to the specific aspects of impaired behavior observed in ASD, namely affected social communication, receptive and expressive language, motor coordination disruption, and even restricted and repetitive behaviors. Further, this strategy provides a diversified approach to assessment that will be applicable across development, and may facilitate identification of common mechanisms by which disparate genetic pathways to autism result in the broad autistic phenotype.

项目摘要 /摘要 这些研究的长期目标是推进高密度弥散光学断层扫描（HD点）方法 用于评估自闭症谱系障碍儿童（ASD）和 幼儿在自然主义环境中模仿新颖的运动运动时有可能发展ASD的风险。 我们正在根据FOA：PA-21-200，自闭症谱系障碍研究提交此申请。在 典型的发展，模仿与正常社会至关重要的几种行为的出现有关 互动和沟通，包括共同注意，发挥启动，社会隶属关系和亲社会行为。 实际上，已经观察到模仿受损的模式和视觉运动集成（VMI） 在广泛的ASD儿童中，模仿能力与社会交流技能相关 在ASD中。将模仿作为表型生物标志物的挑战是对神经的理解不足 导致ASD模仿缺陷的机制以及可变导致神经影像学文献的导致。这 混合发现可能是由于评估功能磁性的电动机模仿的显着局限性 共振成像（fMRI）扫描环境严重限制了运动。这个断开连接 在ASD儿童的一致行为差异与可变神经影像学文献之间 在模仿运动过程中，激发了当前使用高清点的建议。高清点提供了引人入胜的 克服了fMRI的显着人体工程学局限性和默默地图像脑功能的替代方案 自然主义环境中的可穿戴帽非常适合研究两家学校的总体运动运动和模仿的理想 老年儿童和幼儿。拟议的研究计划具有很高的创新性，变革性，并且具有 潜力阐明潜在机制，为临床干预提供信息并改善ASD的结果。作为 这样的研究对NIMH的使命是和谐的：改变对 通过基本和临床研究造成精神疾病，为预防，恢复和治愈铺平了道路。早期的 从18-48个月大的行为和教育干预措施，在一部分 患者。神经影像学方法表现出对ASD神经特征的敏感性，可能会告知 诊断和跟踪对干预措施的反应。在这里，我们建议通过双臂研究 脑功能直接在学校和学前年龄的ASD儿童中直接导致运动运动。 具体而言，我们将在参与者进行自然主义运动模仿和 运动观察。这些数据可能为观察到的受损行为的特定方面提供标记 在ASD中，即影响社会交流，接受和表现力的语言，运动协调 破坏，甚至受到限制和重复行为。此外，该策略为多元化的方法提供了 评估将在整个开发中适用，并可能有助于识别共同机制 自闭症的不同遗传途径导致广泛的自闭症表型。