Uncovering neurodevelopmental paths to autism spectrum disorder through an integrated analysis of developmental measures and neural sensitivity to faces

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is highly heterogeneous in its etiology and manifestation. The neurobiological processes underlying ASD development are reflected in multiple features, from behaviour and cognition to brain functioning. An integrated analysis of these features may optimize the identification of these processes. Methods: We examined cognitive and adaptive functioning and ASD symptoms between 8 and 36 months in 161 infants at familial high risk for ASD and 71 low-risk controls; we also examined neural sensitivity to eye gaze at 8 months in a subsample of 140 high-risk and 61 low-risk infants. We used linked independent component analysis to extract patterns of variation across domains and development, and we selected the patterns significantly associated with clinical classification at 36 months. Results: An early process at 8 months, indicating high levels of functioning and low levels of symptoms linked to higher attention to gaze shifts, was reduced in infants who developed ASD. A longitudinal process of increasing functioning and low levels of symptoms was reduced in infants who developed ASD, and another process suggesting a stagnation in cognitive functioning at 24 months was increased in infants who developed ASD. Limitations: Although the results showed a clear significant trend relating to clinical classification, we found substantial overlap between groups. Conclusion: We uncovered underlying processes that acted together early in development and were associated with clinical outcomes. Our results highlighted the complexity of emerging ASD, which goes beyond the borders of clinical categories. Future work should integrate genetic data to investigate the specific genetic risks linked to these processes.

Download Full-text

Resistance to temptation in toddlers at genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361318797264 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 1018-1027

Author(s):

Susan B Campbell ◽

Jessie B Northrup ◽

Amy B Tavares

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

High Risk ◽

Young Children ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Low Risk ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Typically Developing ◽

High Risk Children

Children with autism spectrum disorder often demonstrate difficulties with self-regulation, although studies of this construct in young children with autism spectrum disorder are limited. In this study, developmental changes were examined using a measure of self-regulation appropriate for young children, resistance to temptation. At 22, 28, and 34 months, toddlers with an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (high risk) and toddlers with typically developing older siblings (low risk) were presented with an appealing toy and instructed not to touch it. Observers coded whether or not children touched the toy and the strategies they used to resist touching it. At 36 months, children were assessed for autism spectrum disorder, yielding three groups: high risk children with autism spectrum disorder, high risk children without autism spectrum disorder, and low risk children. At 22 months, most children, regardless of group, touched the forbidden toy; at 28 and 34 months, many high risk children without autism spectrum disorder and low risk children resisted the temptation to touch the toy, whereas most of the children with autism spectrum disorder did not. Differences in delay strategies were also evident. Some, but not all group differences, were accounted for by differences in language ability. Results highlight one early index of impulse control that differentiates children with emerging autism spectrum disorder from age-mates prior to the third birthday.

Download Full-text

Development of attention from birth to 5 months in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579419000233 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 491-501 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jessica Bradshaw ◽

Ami Klin ◽

Lindsey Evans ◽

Cheryl Klaiman ◽

Celine Saulnier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

At Risk ◽

High Risk ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Social Communication ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Familial Risk ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Low Risk ◽

Spectrum Disorder

AbstractSocial-communication skills emerge within the context of rich social interactions, facilitated by an infant's capacity to attend to people and objects in the environment. Disruption in this early neurobehavioral process may decrease the frequency and quality of social interactions and learning opportunities, potentially leading to downstream deleterious effects on social development. This study examined early attention in infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are at risk for social and communication delays. Visual and auditory attention was mapped from age 1 week to 5 months in infants at familial risk for ASD (high risk; N = 41) and low-risk typically developing infants (low risk; N = 39). At 12 months, a subset of participants (N = 40) was administered assessments of social communication and nonverbal cognitive skills. Results revealed that high-risk infants performed lower on attention tasks at 2 and 3 months of age compared to low-risk infants. A significant association between overall attention at 3 months and developmental outcome at 12 months was observed for both groups. These results provide evidence for early vulnerabilities in visual attention for infants at risk for ASD during a period of important neurodevelopmental transition (between 2 and 3 months) when attention has significant implications for social communication and cognitive development.

Download Full-text

Autism spectrum disorder screening with the CBCL/1½–5: Findings for young children at high risk for autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361317718482 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 29-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Leslie A Rescorla ◽

Breanna M Winder-Patel ◽

Sarah J Paterson ◽

Juhi Pandey ◽

Jason J Wolff ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

High Risk ◽

Mental Disorders ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Low Risk ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Statistical Manual ◽

Developmental Problems ◽

Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽

High Risk Children

The screening power of the CBCL/1½–5’s Withdrawn and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Pervasive Developmental Problems (DSM-PDP) scales to identify children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 24 months was tested in a longitudinal, familial high-risk study. Participants were 56 children at high risk for autism spectrum disorder due to an affected older sibling (high-risk group) and 26 low-risk children with a typically developing older sibling (low-risk group). At 24 months, 13 of the 56 high-risk children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, whereas the other 43 were not. The high-risk children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder group had significantly higher scores on the CBCL/1½–5’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Pervasive Developmental Problems and Withdrawn scales than children in the low-risk and high-risk children not diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder groups [Formula: see text]. Receiver operating characteristic analyses yielded very high area under the curve values (0.91 and 0.89), and a cut point of T ⩾ 60 yielded sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 97% to 99% between the high-risk children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and the combination of low-risk and high-risk children not diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Consistent with several previous studies, the CBCL/1½–5’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Pervasive Developmental Problems scale and the Withdrawn syndrome differentiated well between children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and those not diagnosed.

Download Full-text

The Autism Parent Screen for Infants: Predicting risk of autism spectrum disorder based on parent-reported behavior observed at 6–24 months of age

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361316675120 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 322-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Lori-Ann R Sacrey ◽

Susan Bryson ◽

Lonnie Zwaigenbaum ◽

Jessica Brian ◽

Isabel M Smith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

High Risk ◽

Parent Report ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Low Risk ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Early Screening ◽

History Of ◽

Sensitivity Specificity ◽

High Risk Cohort

This study examined whether a novel parent-report questionnaire, the Autism Parent Screen for Infants, could differentiate infants subsequently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder from a high-risk cohort (siblings of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (n = 66)) from high-risk and low-risk comparison infants (no family history of autism spectrum disorder) who did not develop autism spectrum disorder (n = 138 and 79, respectively). Participants were assessed prospectively at 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 24 months of age. At 36 months, a blind independent diagnostic assessment for autism spectrum disorder was completed. Parent report on the Autism Parent Screen for Infants was examined in relation to diagnostic outcome and risk status (i.e. high-risk sibling with autism spectrum disorder, high-risk sibling without autism spectrum disorder, and low-risk control). The results indicated that from 6 months of age, total score on the Autism Parent Screen for Infants differentiated between the siblings with autism spectrum disorder and the other two groups. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive validity of the Autism Parent Screen for Infants highlight its potential for the early screening of autism spectrum disorder in high-risk cohorts.

Download Full-text

Personal pronoun usage in maternal input to infants at high vs. low risk for autism spectrum disorder

First Language ◽

10.1177/0142723718782634 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 38 (5) ◽

pp. 520-537 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Angela Xiaoxue He ◽

Rhiannon Luyster ◽

Sung Ju Hong ◽

Sudha Arunachalam

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

High Risk ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Low Risk ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Early Developmental Stage ◽

Personal Pronoun ◽

Communicative Behavior ◽

Maternal Input ◽

High Risk Infants

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are prone to personal pronoun difficulties. This article investigates maternal input as a potential contributing factor, focusing on an early developmental stage before ASD diagnosis. Using Quigley and McNally’s corpus of maternal speech to infants (3–19 months; N = 19) who are either at high or low risk for a diagnosis of ASD, the study asked whether mothers used fewer pronouns with high-risk infants. Indeed, high-risk infants heard fewer second-person pronouns relative to their names than low-risk infants. The study further investigated the contexts in which mothers used infants’ names. The results indicated that mothers of high-risk infants often used the infants’ names simply to get their attention by calling them. This finding suggests that high-risk infants may thus hear relatively fewer pronouns because their mothers spend more time trying to get their attention. This may be related to differences in social-communicative behavior between low-risk and high-risk infants.

Download Full-text

Application of the Still-Face Paradigm in Early Screening for High-Risk Autism Spectrum Disorder in Infants and Toddlers

Frontiers in Pediatrics ◽

10.3389/fped.2020.00290 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nana Qiu ◽

Chuangao Tang ◽

Mengyao Zhai ◽

Wanqing Huang ◽

Jiao Weng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

High Risk ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Infants And Toddlers ◽

Early Screening ◽

Still Face Paradigm

Download Full-text

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Adaptive Functioning, Behavioral Problems, and Repetitive Behaviors of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Observational Study

Children ◽

10.3390/children8020096 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 96

Author(s):

Martina Siracusano ◽

Eugenia Segatori ◽

Assia Riccioni ◽

Leonardo Emberti Gialloreti ◽

Paolo Curatolo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Adaptive Functioning ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Repetitive Behaviors ◽

Assessment System ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Adaptive Skills ◽

The Impact

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families have represented a fragile population on which the extreme circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak may have doubly impaired. Interruption of therapeutical interventions delivered in-person and routine disruption constituted some of the main challenges they had to face. This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on adaptive functioning, behavioral problems, and repetitive behaviors of children with ASD. In a sample of 85 Italian ASD children (mean age 7 years old; 68 males, 17 females), through a comparison with a baseline evaluation performed during the months preceding COVID-19, we evaluated whether after the compulsory home confinement any improvement or worsening was reported by parents of ASD individuals using standardized instruments (Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (Second Edition), Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist, Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised). No significant worsening in the adaptive functioning, problematic, and repetitive behaviors emerged after the compulsory home confinement. Within the schooler children, clinical stability was found in reference to both adaptive skills and behavioral aspects, whereas within preschoolers, a significant improvement in adaptive skills emerged and was related to the subsistence of web-delivered intervention, parental work continuance, and online support during the lockdown.

Download Full-text