Prediction and Early Language Development in Young Children with ASD

自闭症谱系障碍幼儿的预测和早期语言发展

• 批准号: 10220940
• 负责人: Susan Ellis-Weismer
• 金额: $ 59.7万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10220940
• 关键词: Accounting; Address; Adult; Area; Auditory; Behavior; Brain; Characteristics; Child; Cognition; Cognitive; Communication; Development; Ensure; Environment; Etiology; Event; Executive Dysfunction; Exhibits; Eye Movements; Generations; Hyperplasia; Individual; Infant; Intervention; Knowledge; Label; Language; Language Delays; Language Development; Language Disorders; Lead; Learning; Linguistics; Link; Matched Group; Measures; Meta-Analysis; Methods; Mind; Modality; Modeling; Outcome; Overweight; Parents; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Performance; Phenotype; Probability; Process; Publishing; Research; Research Personnel; Sampling; Severities; Specific qualifier value; Speed; Standardization; Structure; Symptoms; Task Performances; Testing; Time; Toddler; United States National Institutes of Health; Update; Variant; Verbal Learning; Visual; Vocabulary; Weight; autism spectrum disorder; autistic children; base; central coherence; cohort; design; expectation; experience; flexibility; indexing; individual variation; individuals with autism spectrum disorder; innovation; insight; interest; language outcome; language processing; novel; peer; sequence learning; sex; social; social communication; statistical learning; syntax; theories; visual learning; visual processing; word learning

Abstract Language delay is often one of the first concerns of parents of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and early language abilities predict broader outcomes for children on the autism spectrum. Yet, mechanisms underlying language deficits in children with ASD remain unspecified. One prominent component of linguistic behavior is the use of predictions or expectations during learning and processing. Several researchers have recently posited prediction-deficit accounts of ASD. The basic assumption of the prediction accounts is that information is processed by making predictions and testing violations against expectations (prediction errors). Flexible (neurotypical) brains attribute differential weights to prediction errors to determine when new learning is appropriate, while individuals with ASD are thought to assign disproportionate weight to prediction errors. These prediction deficits are hypothesized to lead to higher levels of perceived novelty, resulting in `hyperplasticity' of learning based on the most recent input. The proposed project will be the first study to examine whether language deficits in young children with ASD are linked to atypical domain-general prediction processes. Seven studies are proposed to address the following Specific Aims: (1) to determine the ability of toddlers with ASD to generate predictions compared to typically developing (TD) peers; (2) to establish whether toddlers with ASD exhibit hyperplasticity of learning relative to TD peers; (3) to examine the extent to which certain child characteristics predict individual variability in predictive behavior and hyperplasticity in toddlers with ASD; and (4) establish whether predictive behavior or hyperplasticity of learning on verbal/visual tasks predicts vocabulary and/or syntactic ability one year later in young children with ASD. The sample will be comprised of 75 ASD toddlers (three cohorts of 25 toddlers) and 75 TD controls distribution-matched on cognition (raw scores), SES, and sex. In this project we will utilize anticipatory eye movements (AEMs) and looking-while-listening (LWL) methods to investigate prediction in visual and verbal tasks in toddlers with and without ASD. Studies 1 (auditory) and 2 (visual) examine prediction as indexed by AEMs under conditions in which probabilities of the occurrence of events are relatively stable. Studies 3 (verbal) and 4 (nonverbal) will investigate hyperplasticity of learning in AEM tasks in which probabilities of the events change and predictions must be updated. Study 5 will explore hyperplasticity within the context of novel word learning using a LWL task. Study 6 will examine the relationship between child characteristics (cognition, language, autism symptom severity) and prediction. In Study 7, performance on Studies 1-5 will be used to predict language abilities in the same sample of toddlers one year later (from 18-35 mo to 30-47 mo) using both standardized tasks and an online incremental language processing task. All studies were developed to have minimal task demands in order to include toddlers with ASD across a wide range of functioning. Findings from this research will provide important new insights into ASD phenotypes and mechanisms underlying language development that could open new pathways for intervention.

抽象的 语言延迟通常是患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的幼儿父母的最早关注点之一， 早期的语言能力可以预测自闭症谱系儿童的更广泛的结果。但是，机制 ASD儿童的潜在语言缺陷仍未指定。语言的重要组成部分 行为是在学习和处理过程中使用预测或期望。一些研究人员有 最近提出了ASD的预测缺陷帐户。预测帐户的基本假设是 通过对预期（预测错误）进行预测和测试违规来处理信息。 灵活的（神经型）大脑将差异权重归因于预测错误，以确定何时新学习 适当的，而患有ASD的人则被认为分配了不成比例的重量与预测错误。这些 假设预测缺陷会导致更高水平的新颖性，从而导致“增生性” 基于最新输入的学习。拟议的项目将是第一个研究语言的研究 患有ASD的幼儿的缺陷与非典型领域总预测过程有关。七项研究 建议解决以下特定目的：（1）确定与ASD生成的幼儿的能力 与通常发展的（TD）同行相比，预测； （2）确定是否有ASD展览的幼儿 学习相对于TD同龄人的增生性； （3）检查某些儿童特征的程度 预测ASD幼儿的预测行为和增生性的个体变异性； （4）建立 在言语/视觉任务上学习的预测行为或增强性是否预测词汇和/或 一年后，ASD患有ASD的幼儿句法能力。样本将由75个ASD幼儿组成 （三个队列的25个幼儿）和75 TD控制在认知（原始得分），SES和性别上匹配的分布。 在这个项目中，我们将利用预期的眼动（AEM）和浏览（LWL）方法 研究有或没有ASD的幼儿中视觉和口头任务的预测。研究1（听觉）和2 （视觉）在条件下检查AEM索引的预测，其中发生的概率 事件相对稳定。研究3（言语）和4（非语言）将研究学习的增生性 必须更新事件概率的AEM任务，并且必须更新预测。研究5将探索 使用LWL任务的新单词学习的上下文中的增生性。研究6将检查关系 在儿童特征（认知，语言，自闭症症状严重程度）和预测之间。在研究7中 研究1-5的表现将用于预测同一幼儿样本中的语言能力 后来（从18-35 MO到30-47 MO）使用标准化任务和在线增量语言处理 任务。所有的研究均已开发出最小的任务要求，以包括在a a a at a a asd的幼儿 广泛的功能。这项研究的发现将为ASD表型提供重要的新见解 和语言发展的基础机制，可以打开新的干预途径。