Development of Face Processing in Infants with Autism Spectrum Disorders

自闭症谱系障碍婴儿面部处理的发展

基本信息

批准号：
8434216
负责人：
KATARZYNA CHAWARSKA
金额：
$ 39.32万
依托单位：
YALE UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2010-04-01 至 2015-02-28
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8434216
关键词：
3 year old Address Affect Age Attention Autistic Disorder Awareness Behavioral Child Clinical Cognition Cognitive deficits Computer-Assisted Image Analysis Cues Data Development Developmental Delay Disorders Diagnosis Diagnostic Early Diagnosis Early identification Employment Environment Exhibits Eye Face Face Processing Genetic Goals Heterogeneity Housing Human Impairment Individual Infant Language Learning Life Link Longitudinal Studies Measures Mediating Methodology Nature Newborn Infant Oral cavity Outcome Outcome Measure Pattern Performance Peripheral Phase Phenotype Population Procedures Process Property Public Health Reaction Time Regulation Research Research Design Residual state Risk Role Scanning Series Siblings Signal Transduction Social Interaction Specific qualifier value Speech Perception Speed Staging Stimulus Symptoms Testing Time Toddler United States National Institutes of Health Visual Visual attention Visual system structure age effect autism spectrum disorder base clinical Diagnosis cognitive system comparison group face perception high risk improved indexing infancy interest novel preference primary outcome prospective public health relevance research study response secondary outcome skills social theories

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Considering the early role of human faces as compelling stimuli for typically developing newborns and considering the emergence of sophisticated face recognition skills by six months in typical development, it is very likely that face processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is affected from the first months of life. This project aims to characterize the emergence of face processing abnormalities in infants with ASD by prospectively following, from 3 months to 36 months of life, 160 infants at high risk for developing ASD due to a genetic liability (i.e. by having an older sibling with ASD). At 36 months, clinical diagnosis of the high-risk population will afford the division of the population into three groups: 1) siblings with ASD; 2) Non-Affected siblings (NAF); and 3) siblings with various developmental delays but without ASD features (DD). Developmental changes in face processing skills will be compared against 40 low-risk, typically developing infants (TYP). The set of interrelated face processing skills to be examined include: 1) localization of faces and focused attention to faces; 2) attentional disengagement from faces; and 3) face scanning and recognition. Localization of faces and focused attention towards faces tests the hypothesis that, when presented with faces in naturalistic environments, children who later develop ASD will take longer to localize a face, and, when they do, will spend less time focused on the face. Disengagement from faces task tests the hypothesis that DD, TYP and NAF attend to faces in an obligatory manner and process them on a deeper level as compared to children who develop ASD. This hypothesis will be reflected by a longer latency in shifting attention away from the face to a remote target that appears suddenly. Face scanning and recognition will test the hypothesis that infants with ASD will, with age, exhibit a progressively atypical pattern of face scanning and that the degree of abnormality will correlate with recognition skills as well as social and cognitive deficits. The process of encoding facial features and recognition skills will be gauged via an infant-controlled habituation paradigm. It is expected that the patterns in localization of faces, focused attention towards faces, attention capture by faces, and face scanning and recognition, will, in combination, highlight the developmental divergence in high-risk and low-risk children and correlate with worsening autistic symptoms. Our goals are to identify the type of primary impairments in face processing and to understand the developmental trajectories of face processing abnormalities in the earliest stages of ASD. This will inform early diagnosis (through identification of potential early indicators of risk for ASD), treatment (though identification of pivotal target skills), and theory (through enhancing understanding of mechanisms underlying abnormalities in face perception in ASD). This project addresses several key action items of the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, with emphasis on understanding of underlying mechanisms of social impairment and identifying behavioral markers for ASD in infancy.

描述（由申请人提供）：考虑到人脸的早期作用对于正常发育的新生儿来说是引人注目的刺激，并考虑到在典型发育过程中六个月时复杂的面部识别技能的出现，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中的面部处理很可能）从生命的最初几个月开始受到影响。该项目旨在通过前瞻性跟踪 160 名因遗传原因（即有患有 ASD 的哥哥姐姐）而具有患 ASD 高风险的婴儿，从 3 个月到 36 个月的生命周期，来描述 ASD 婴儿面部处理异常的特征。）。 36 个月时，高危人群的临床诊断将把人群分为三组：1）患有 ASD 的兄弟姐妹； 2) 未受影响的兄弟姐妹 (NAF)； 3) 患有各种发育迟缓但没有 ASD 特征 (DD) 的兄弟姐妹。面部处理技能的发育变化将与 40 名低风险、典型发育婴儿 (TYP) 进行比较。要检查的一组相互关联的面部处理技能包括：1）面部定位和对面部的集中注意力； 2）注意力脱离面部； 3）人脸扫描和识别。面部定位和对面部的集中注意力测试了这样一个假设：当在自然环境中出现面部时，后来患上自闭症谱系障碍的儿童将需要更长的时间来定位面部，并且当他们这样做时，会花更少的时间专注于面部。脱离面孔任务测试了这样的假设：与患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童相比，DD、TYP 和 NAF 以强制性方式关注面孔，并在更深层次上处理它们。这一假设将反映在将注意力从面部转移到突然出现的远程目标上的较长延迟上。面部扫描和识别将检验这样的假设：随着年龄的增长，患有自闭症谱系障碍的婴儿将表现出逐渐非典型的面部扫描模式，并且异常程度将与识别技能以及社交和认知缺陷相关。编码面部特征和识别技能的过程将通过婴儿控制的习惯范式来衡量。预计面部定位、对面部的集中注意力、面部注意力捕获以及面部扫描和识别等模式将共同凸显高风险和低风险儿童的发育差异，并与自闭症恶化相关。症状。我们的目标是确定面部处理的主要损伤类型，并了解自闭症谱系障碍早期阶段面部处理异常的发展轨迹。这将为早期诊断（通过识别自闭症谱系障碍风险的潜在早期指标）、治疗（通过识别关键目标技能）和理论（通过增强对自闭症谱系障碍面部感知异常的潜在机制的理解）提供信息。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，重点是了解社会障碍的基本机制并识别婴儿期自闭症的行为标志。