Pre- and Postnatal Neurobehavioral Profiles in Infants at Risk for Autism

有自闭症风险的婴儿产前和产后神经行为特征

• 批准号: 7642540
• 负责人: STEPHEN J SHEINKOPF
• 金额: $ 7.42万
• 依托单位: WOMEN AND INFANTS HOSPITAL-RHODE ISLAND
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2010-12-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7642540
• 关键词: Acoustics; Affective; Area; Attention; Auditory; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Caring; Case Study; Child; Child Development; Crying; Data; Development; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Discipline of obstetrics; Early Diagnosis; Early identification; Eye; Fetal Heart Rate; Fetal Movement; Fetus; Follow-Up Studies; Foundations; Goals; Grant; Heart Rate; Hypersensitivity; Impairment; Infant; Intervention; Investigation; Life; Literature; Measurement; Measures; Mothers; Movement; Muscle hypotonia; Musculoskeletal Equilibrium; Nature; Neonatal; Newborn Infant; Pattern; Perinatal; Plant Roots; Population; Procedures; Prospective Studies; Recruitment Activity; Regulation; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Retrospective Studies; Risk; Sampling; Screening procedure; Series; Siblings; Signal Transduction; Staging; Stimulus; Symptoms; System; Temperament; Testing; Validity and Reliability; Voice; analog; autism spectrum disorder; base; biobehavioral measurement; disorder risk; early childhood; fetal; fetus at risk; follow-up; high risk; high risk infant; improved; infancy; neurobehavior; neurobehavioral; novel; postnatal; pregnant; prenatal; prospective; public health relevance; response; social; sound; tool; vibration

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Identification of early signs of autism is a critical goal for research. This study will examine fetuses of mothers who have older children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to identify signs of autism in the prenatal and newborn periods. ASD is highly heritable and there is elevated risk for autism in siblings. Recent research on high-risk infants (those with an older sibling with ASD) has identified potential signs of autism by early infancy. These signs of risk include behavioral features known to be indicative of ASD in later development, including poor social attention, social responsivity, and eye contact. Research from typical and other atypical populations supports the reliable measurement of biobehavioral response profiles in the fetal period. Thus, evidence indicates that it may be possible to identify signs of autism the perinatal and early postnatal periods. Such findings would have profound implications for understanding the developmental course in ASD and would open the door to both identification and treatment in the earliest stages of development. We will investigate fetal movement and heart rate in response to social and non-social stimuli in pregnant mothers who have an older child with an ASD (high risk fetuses) as compared to mothers who have older children with typical development (low risk fetuses). Research has demonstrated that fetal responses to stimuli are predictive of later behavior and temperament, and that fetuses can discriminate familiar voices (i.e., respond differentially to social stimuli). Based on these findings, and utilizing procedures already used in our lab, we will administer vibroacoustic stimulus (vibration plus sound; used regularly in prenatal obstetric care) and a series of social stimuli to the fetus (audio recording of the mother's and a stranger's voice). We will measure fetal responses by observing changes in movement, heart rate, and other signs of reactivity. Measures of neonatal behavior and reactivity will be administered in the newborn period, including analogues to the 3rd trimester stimuli, a newborn neurobehavioral exam, and acoustic cry analyses. Our initial examination of the resulting data will be to compare the response profiles of high and low risk infants. This project will lay the groundwork for developmental follow-up of the at risk infants, and will provide pilot data to support a more extensive study of this kind. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research is highly relevant to both early identification and intervention for children with autism. By identifying atypical behavioral and reactivity patterns in the fetal and newborn periods in infants at risk for autism, this research will aide in the development of more sensitive and specific screening and diagnostic tools for use in infancy. In addition, this research will improve our understanding of the roots and course of impairments in autism.

描述（由申请人提供）：自闭症早期迹象的识别是研究的关键目标。这项研究将检查患有自闭症谱系障碍儿童（ASD）的母亲的胎儿，以识别产前和新生儿时期自闭症的迹象。 ASD是高度遗传的，兄弟姐妹的自闭症风险较高。最近关于高危婴儿（与ASD兄弟姐妹较老的人）的研究已经确定了早期婴儿的自闭症迹象。这些风险迹象包括已知在以后发展中表明ASD的行为特征，包括社会关注不良，社会反应性和眼神交流。典型和其他非典型人群的研究支持了胎儿时期生物行为反应谱的可靠测量。因此，有证据表明，有可能识别自闭症的征兆在产后和早期产后。这样的发现将对理解ASD中的发展过程有深远的影响，并将在最早的发展阶段打开识别和治疗的大门。与患有患有ASD的大孩子（高风险胎儿）的孕妇的社会和非社会刺激，我们将调查胎儿运动和心率，与患有典型发育典型的孩子（低风险胎儿）相比。研究表明，胎儿对刺激的反应可以预测后来的行为和气质，并且胎儿可以区分熟悉的声音（即对社会刺激的反应差异）。基于这些发现，并利用我们实验室中已经使用的程序，我们将管理敏感声刺激（振动加声；在产前产科护理中经常使用）和一系列的社交刺激（母亲的声音和陌生人的声音和陌生人的声音）。我们将通过观察运动，心率和其他反应性迹象的变化来衡量胎儿反应。新生儿时期将采用新生儿行为和反应性的措施，包括与三个月刺激的类似物，新生儿神经行为检查和声学哭泣分析。我们对所得数据的初步检查将是比较高风险婴儿和低风险婴儿的反应曲线。该项目将为AT风险婴儿的发展随访奠定基础，并将提供试点数据，以支持对此类研究的广泛研究。公共卫生相关性：这项研究与自闭症儿童的早期识别和干预高度相关。通过确定胎儿和新生儿的非典型行为和反应性模式，该研究将有助于开发更敏感，更特定的筛查和用于婴儿期的诊断工具。此外，这项研究将提高我们对自闭症中损害的根源和进程的理解。