Investigating Neural and Behavioral Alignment as a Mechanism of Social Interaction Challenges in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

研究神经和行为协调作为自闭症谱系障碍青少年社交互动挑战的机制

• 批准号: 10311880
• 负责人: Kathryn A McNaughton
• 金额: $ 4.6万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10311880
• 关键词: Address; Adolescent; Affect; Attention; Behavior; Behavioral; Child; Cognitive; Complex; Computer Vision Systems; Data Analyses; Development; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Emotions; Ensure; Experimental Designs; Facial Expression; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Future; Goals; Individual; Intervention; Investigation; Lead; Light; Measures; Mediating; Mediator of activation protein; Mental Health; Mentorship; Methodology; Methods; Outcome; Participant; Reporting; Research; Role; Social Development; Social Functioning; Social Interaction; Social support; Statistical Data Interpretation; Stimulus; Technical Expertise; Testing; Time; Training; United States; Well in self; Work; adolescent with autism spectrum disorder; autism spectrum disorder; autistic children; behavioral outcome; body position; career; cognitive process; data acquisition; design; early adolescence; experimental study; functional MRI scan; gaze; improved; individuals with autism spectrum disorder; insight; multilevel analysis; neurotransmission; novel; peer; relating to nervous system; research data dissemination; response; skills; social; social attention; success; visual tracking

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 54 children in the United States and is characterized by difficulties in initiating and maintaining social interactions, leading to negative impacts on real-world social functioning and mental health. Therefore, an important target of intervention in ASD is improving social interaction outcomes, particularly peer interactions in the sensitive time period of early adolescence. During early adolescence, children with ASD lag behind their peers in social development, yet peer relationships are an increasingly important determinant of mental health. One potential target of intervention for improving social interaction outcomes in ASD is alignment, the degree to which two or more individuals are aligned in their neural signals, behaviors, and emotions in time. Alignment includes neural similarity (the pre-existing similarity of individuals' neural response to stimuli) and interactional synchrony (the dynamic adjustments in body position and facial expressions that occur between interacting individuals). Alignment has been established as an important predictor of social interaction success in typically developing individuals, and some preliminary work has suggested that alignment may be atypical in interactions including individuals with ASD. However, alignment and its associations with social interaction outcomes have not yet been examined in early adolescent peer relationships in ASD. Furthermore, a promising mechanism of atypical interactional synchrony in ASD, atypical social attention, has not been directly tested as a mediator between diagnosis and atypical synchrony. By using ecologically valid methods to examine live social interaction behaviors and outcomes between dyads of novel peers, this proposal will test alignment as a mechanism of peer interaction challenges in ASD in real- world contexts. Two aspects of alignment, neural similarity (Aim 1) and interactional synchrony (Aim 2), will be tested as predictors of social interaction challenges in dyads including an individual with ASD. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that atypical social attention mediates the relation between ASD diagnosis and atypical interactional synchrony. Collectively, these experiments will not only examine diagnostic group differences in alignment, but also quantify the impact of alignment on real-world social interaction success, and investigate a potential mediator of relations between diagnosis and interactional synchrony. Peer interaction success in early adolescence is a key determinant of mental health, and the identification of atypical alignment as a mechanism of peer interaction challenges could lead to new targets of intervention to support social functioning in ASD. This proposal is supported by an integrated training plan developed with an expert mentorship team. Three training goals will ensure the applicant is well prepared to transition to a future independent research career investigating the neural and cognitive mechanisms of social interactions: (1) acquiring technical skills in the quantification of neural and cognitive processes of social interaction, (2) extending conceptual training in social development and ASD, and (3) furthering research dissemination and mentorship skills.

项目概要/摘要 在美国，每 54 名儿童中就有 1 人患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD)，其特点是困难 在发起和维持社会互动方面，导致对现实世界的社会功能和社会功能产生负面影响 心理健康。因此，干预自闭症谱系障碍的一个重要目标是改善社交互动结果， 尤其是在青春期早期这个敏感时期的同伴互动。在青春期早期， 自闭症谱系障碍儿童的社交发展落后于同龄人，但同伴关系却日益恶化 心理健康的重要决定因素。改善社会互动的潜在干预目标之一 自闭症谱系障碍的结果是对齐，即两个或更多个体的神经信号对齐的程度， 及时的行为和情绪。对齐包括神经相似性（个体的预先存在的相似性） 对刺激的神经反应）和交互同步性（身体位置和面部的动态调整） 互动个体之间发生的表达）。对齐已被确定为重要的 典型发育个体社交互动成功的预测因素，一些初步工作已经 表明在包括自闭症谱系障碍患者在内的互动中，一致性可能是非典型的。然而，对齐 及其与社会互动结果的关联尚未在青少年早期同龄人中得到检验 ASD 中的关系。此外，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中非典型相互作用同步的一个有前途的机制是非典型 社会关注度尚未作为诊断和非典型同步之间的中介因素进行直接测试。经过 使用生态上有效的方法来检查二人组之间的实时社会互动行为和结果 新颖的同伴，该提案将测试一致性作为自闭症谱系障碍中同伴互动挑战的机制。 世界背景。对齐的两个方面，神经相似性（目标 1）和交互同步（目标 2），将是 作为包括自闭症谱系障碍患者在内的二人群体中社交互动挑战的预测因素进行了测试。目标 3 将进行测试 非典型社会关注介导 ASD 诊断与非典型之间关系的假设 交互同步。总的来说，这些实验不仅会检查诊断组的差异 对齐，还量化对齐对现实世界社交互动成功的影响，并调查 诊断和交互同步之间关系的潜在中介。早期同伴互动取得成功 青春期是心理健康的关键决定因素，非典型排列的识别是一种机制 同伴互动挑战可能会导致新的干预目标，以支持自闭症谱系障碍的社会功能。 该提案得到了专家指导团队制定的综合培训计划的支持。三 培训目标将确保申请人为过渡到未来的独立研究职业做好充分准备 研究社会互动的神经和认知机制：（1）获得社会互动的技术技能 社会互动的神经和认知过程的量化，（2）扩展社会中的概念训练 发展和自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD)，(3) 促进研究传播和指导技能。