1
|
Wu D, Wolff JJ, Ravi S, Elison JT, Estes A, Paterson S, St John T, Abdi H, Moraglia LE, Piven J, Swanson MR. Infants who develop autism show smaller inventories of deictic and symbolic gestures at 12 months of age. Autism Res 2024; 17:838-851. [PMID: 38204321 PMCID: PMC11014769 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Gestures are an important social communication skill that infants and toddlers use to convey their thoughts, ideas, and intentions. Research suggests that early gesture use has important downstream impacts on developmental processes, such as language learning. However, autistic children are more likely to have challenges in their gestural development. The current study expands upon previous literature on the differences in gesture use between young autistic and non-autistic toddlers by collecting data using a parent-report questionnaire called the MCDI-Words and Gestures at three time points, 12, 18, and 24 months of age. Results (N = 467) showed that high-likelihood infants who later met diagnostic criteria for ASD (n = 73 HL-ASD) have attenuated gesture growth from 12 to 24 months for both deictic gestures and symbolic gestures when compared to high-likelihood infants who later did not meet criteria for ASD (n = 249 HL-Neg) and low-likelihood infants who did not meet criteria for ASD (n = 145 LL-Neg). Other social communicative skills, like play behaviors and imitation, were also found to be impacted in young autistic children when compared to their non-autistic peers. Understanding early differences in social communication growth before a formal autism diagnosis can provide important insights for early intervention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dennis Wu
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| | - Jason J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Shruthi Ravi
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| | - Jed T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Annette Estes
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Sarah Paterson
- James S. McDonnell Foundation, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
| | - Tanya St John
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Hervé Abdi
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| | - Luke E Moraglia
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| | - Joseph Piven
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Meghan R Swanson
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Ding N, Fu L, Qian L, Sun B, Li C, Gao H, Lei T, Ke X. The correlation between brain structure characteristics and emotion regulation ability in children at high risk of autism spectrum disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2024:10.1007/s00787-024-02369-y. [PMID: 38402375 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-024-02369-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/26/2024]
Abstract
As indicated by longitudinal observation, autism has difficulty controlling emotions to a certain extent in early childhood, and most children's emotional and behavioral problems are further aggravated with the growth of age. This study aimed at exploring the correlation between white matter and white matter fiber bundle connectivity characteristics and their emotional regulation ability in children with autism using machine learning methods, which can lay an empirical basis for early clinical intervention of autism. Fifty-five high risk of autism spectrum disorder (HR-ASD) children and 52 typical development (TD) children were selected to complete the skull 3D-T1 structure and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The emotional regulation ability of the two groups was compared using the still-face paradigm (SFP). The classification and regression models of white matter characteristics and white matter fiber bundle connections of emotion regulation ability in the HR-ASD group were built based on the machine learning method. The volume of the right amygdala (R2 = 0.245) and the volume of the right hippocampus (R2 = 0.197) affected constructive emotion regulation strategies. FA (R2 = 0.32) and MD (R2 = 0.34) had the predictive effect on self-stimulating behaviour. White matter fiber bundle connection predicted constructive regulation strategies (positive edging R2 = 0.333, negative edging R2 = 0.334) and mother-seeking behaviors (positive edging R2 = 0.667, negative edging R2 = 0.363). The emotional regulation ability of HR-ASD children is significantly correlated with the connections of multiple white matter fiber bundles, which is a potential neuro-biomarker of emotional regulation ability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ning Ding
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
- Qingdao Women and Children' s Hospital, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266011, China
| | - Linyan Fu
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Lu Qian
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Bei Sun
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Chunyan Li
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Huiyun Gao
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Tianyu Lei
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China
| | - Xiaoyan Ke
- Child Mental Health Research Center, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
McFayden TC, Rutsohn J, Cetin G, Forsen E, Swanson MR, Meera SS, Wolff JJ, Elison JT, Shen MD, Botteron K, Dager SR, Estes A, Gerig G, McKinstry RC, Pandey J, Schultz R, St John T, Styner M, Truong Y, Zwaigenbaum L, Hazlett HC, Piven J, Girault JB. White matter development and language abilities during infancy in autism spectrum disorder. Mol Psychiatry 2024:10.1038/s41380-024-02470-3. [PMID: 38383768 PMCID: PMC11336031 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02470-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
White matter (WM) fiber tract differences are present in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and could be important markers of behavior. One of the earliest phenotypic differences in ASD are language atypicalities. Although language has been linked to WM in typical development, no work has evaluated this association in early ASD. Participants came from the Infant Brain Imaging Study and included 321 infant siblings of children with ASD at high likelihood (HL) for developing ASD; 70 HL infants were later diagnosed with ASD (HL-ASD), and 251 HL infants were not diagnosed with ASD (HL-Neg). A control sample of 140 low likelihood infants not diagnosed with ASD (LL-Neg) were also included. Infants contributed expressive language, receptive language, and diffusion tensor imaging data at 6-, 12-, and 24 months. Mixed effects regression models were conducted to evaluate associations between WM and language trajectories. Trajectories of microstructural changes in the right arcuate fasciculus were associated with expressive language development. HL-ASD infants demonstrated a different developmental pattern compared to the HL-Neg and LL-Neg groups, wherein the HL-ASD group exhibited a positive association between WM fractional anisotropy and language whereas HL-Neg and LL-Neg groups showed weak or no association. No other fiber tracts demonstrated significant associations with language. In conclusion, results indicated arcuate fasciculus WM is linked to language in early toddlerhood for autistic toddlers, with the strongest associations emerging around 24 months. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate associations between language and WM development during the pre-symptomatic period in ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tyler C McFayden
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA.
| | - Joshua Rutsohn
- Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Gizem Cetin
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA
| | - Elizabeth Forsen
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Meghan R Swanson
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Shoba S Meera
- Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
| | - Jason J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Jed T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Mark D Shen
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA
| | - Kelly Botteron
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Stephen R Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Annette Estes
- Institute on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Guido Gerig
- Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Robert C McKinstry
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Juhi Pandey
- Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Robert Schultz
- Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Tanya St John
- Institute on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Martin Styner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Young Truong
- Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | | | - Heather C Hazlett
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA
| | - Jessica B Girault
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrboro, NC, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Bedford SA, Lai MC, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, Ruigrok A, Suckling J, Anagnostou E, Lerch JP, Taylor M, Nicolson R, Stelios G, Crosbie J, Schachar R, Kelley E, Jones J, Arnold PD, Courchesne E, Pierce K, Eyler LT, Campbell K, Barnes CC, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bullmore ET, Baron-Cohen S, Bethlehem RA. Brain-charting autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder reveals distinct and overlapping neurobiology. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.12.06.23299587. [PMID: 38106166 PMCID: PMC10723556 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.06.23299587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Background Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are heterogeneous neurodevelopmental conditions with complex underlying neurobiology. Despite overlapping presentation and sex-biased prevalence, autism and ADHD are rarely studied together, and sex differences are often overlooked. Normative modelling provides a unified framework for studying age-specific and sex-specific divergences in neurodivergent brain development. Methods Here we use normative modelling and a large, multi-site neuroimaging dataset to characterise cortical anatomy associated with autism and ADHD, benchmarked against models of typical brain development based on a sample of over 75,000 individuals. We also examined sex and age differences, relationship with autistic traits, and explored the co-occurrence of autism and ADHD (autism+ADHD). Results We observed robust neuroanatomical signatures of both autism and ADHD. Overall, autistic individuals showed greater cortical thickness and volume localised to the superior temporal cortex, whereas individuals with ADHD showed more global effects of cortical thickness increases but lower cortical volume and surface area across much of the cortex. The autism+ADHD group displayed a unique pattern of widespread increases in cortical thickness, and certain decreases in surface area. We also found evidence that sex modulates the neuroanatomy of autism but not ADHD, and an age-by-diagnosis interaction for ADHD only. Conclusions These results indicate distinct cortical differences in autism and ADHD that are differentially impacted by age, sex, and potentially unique patterns related to their co-occurrence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Saashi A. Bedford
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK
| | - Meng-Chuan Lai
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- The Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health and Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1R8, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei 100229, Taiwan
| | - Michael V. Lombardo
- Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Bhismadev Chakrabarti
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- Centre for Autism, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6ES, UK
| | - Amber Ruigrok
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester
| | - John Suckling
- Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK
| | - Evdokia Anagnostou
- Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jason P. Lerch
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
| | - Margot Taylor
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Rob Nicolson
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Jennifer Crosbie
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1R8, Canada
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Genetics & Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Russell Schachar
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1R8, Canada
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Genetics & Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Kelley
- Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
| | - Jessica Jones
- Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada
| | - Paul D. Arnold
- The Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research & Education, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Genetics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Eric Courchesne
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Karen Pierce
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Lisa T. Eyler
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Kathleen Campbell
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Cynthia Carter Barnes
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Jakob Seidlitz
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Aaron F. Alexander-Bloch
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Edward T. Bullmore
- Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- Cambridge Lifetime Autism Spectrum Service (CLASS), Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
| | - Richard A.I. Bethlehem
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
- Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
Garic D, McKinstry RC, Rutsohn J, Slomowitz R, Wolff J, MacIntyre LC, Weisenfeld LAH, Kim SH, Pandey J, St. John T, Estes AM, Schultz RT, Hazlett HC, Dager SR, Botteron KN, Styner M, Piven J, Shen MD. Enlarged Perivascular Spaces in Infancy and Autism Diagnosis, Cerebrospinal Fluid Volume, and Later Sleep Problems. JAMA Netw Open 2023; 6:e2348341. [PMID: 38113043 PMCID: PMC10731509 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.48341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Importance Perivascular spaces (PVS) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are essential components of the glymphatic system, regulating brain homeostasis and clearing neural waste throughout the lifespan. Enlarged PVS have been implicated in neurological disorders and sleep problems in adults, and excessive CSF volume has been reported in infants who develop autism. Enlarged PVS have not been sufficiently studied longitudinally in infancy or in relation to autism outcomes or CSF volume. Objective To examine whether enlarged PVS are more prevalent in infants who develop autism compared with controls and whether they are associated with trajectories of extra-axial CSF volume (EA-CSF) and sleep problems in later childhood. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective, longitudinal cohort study used data from the Infant Brain Imaging Study. Magnetic resonance images were acquired at ages 6, 12, and 24 months (2007-2017), with sleep questionnaires performed between ages 7 and 12 years (starting in 2018). Data were collected at 4 sites in North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Data were analyzed from March 2021 through August 2022. Exposure PVS (ie, fluid-filled channels that surround blood vessels in the brain) that are enlarged (ie, visible on magnetic resonance imaging). Main Outcomes and Measures Outcomes of interest were enlarged PVS and EA-CSF volume from 6 to 24 months, autism diagnosis at 24 months, sleep problems between ages 7 and 12 years. Results A total of 311 infants (197 [63.3%] male) were included: 47 infants at high familial likelihood for autism (ie, having an older sibling with autism) who were diagnosed with autism at age 24 months, 180 high likelihood infants not diagnosed with autism, and 84 low likelihood control infants not diagnosed with autism. Sleep measures at school-age were available for 109 participants. Of infants who developed autism, 21 (44.7%) had enlarged PVS at 24 months compared with 48 infants (26.7%) in the high likelihood but no autism diagnosis group (P = .02) and 22 infants in the control group (26.2%) (P = .03). Across all groups, enlarged PVS at 24 months was associated with greater EA-CSF volume from ages 6 to 24 months (β = 4.64; 95% CI, 0.58-8.72; P = .002) and more frequent night wakings at school-age (F = 7.76; η2 = 0.08; P = .006). Conclusions and Relevance These findings suggest that enlarged PVS emerged between ages 12 and 24 months in infants who developed autism. These results add to a growing body of evidence that, along with excessive CSF volume and sleep dysfunction, the glymphatic system could be dysregulated in infants who develop autism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dea Garic
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Robert C. McKinstry
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Joshua Rutsohn
- Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill
| | | | - Jason Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development, Minneapolis
| | - Leigh C. MacIntyre
- McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Leigh Anne H. Weisenfeld
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Sun Hyung Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Juhi Pandey
- Center for Autism Research, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia
| | - Tanya St. John
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Washington, Seattle
- University of Washington Autism Center, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Annette M. Estes
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Washington, Seattle
- University of Washington Autism Center, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Robert T. Schultz
- University of Washington Autism Center, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Heather C. Hazlett
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Stephen R. Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle
| | - Kelly N. Botteron
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Martin Styner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| | - Mark D. Shen
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Cohenour TL, Gulsrud A, Kasari C. Heterogeneity of autism symptoms in community-referred infants and toddlers at elevated or low familial likelihood of autism. Autism Res 2023; 16:1739-1749. [PMID: 37408377 PMCID: PMC10527623 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2973] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
Evidence suggests autistic individuals at elevated familial likelihood of autism spectrum disorder (by virtue of having an autistic sibling) have stronger cognitive abilities on average than autistic individuals with no family history of the condition, who have a low familial likelihood of autism. Investigating phenotypic differences between community-referred infants and toddlers with autism symptoms at elevated or low familial likelihood of autism may provide important insight into heterogeneity in the emerging autism phenotype. This study compared behavioral, cognitive, and language abilities of community-referred infants and toddlers with confirmed autism symptoms at elevated (EL) or low familial likelihood of autism (LL). Participants were 121 children aged 12 to 36 months who participated in two larger randomized trials of parent-mediated interventions for children with autism symptoms. Behavioral phenotypes were compared across three groups: children with at least one autistic sibling (EL-Sibs, n = 30), those with at least one older, non-autistic sibling and no family history of autism (LL-Sibs, n = 40), and first-born children with no family history of autism (LL-FB, n = 51). EL-Sibs had less severe autism symptoms and stronger cognitive abilities than children in LL groups. While the rate of receptive language delay was similar across groups, the rate of expressive language delay was markedly lower among EL-Sibs. After controlling for age and nonverbal cognitive ability, EL-Sibs were significantly less likely to present with expressive language delay than LL-Sibs. Familial likelihood of autism may play an important role in shaping the emerging autism phenotype in infancy and toddlerhood.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Amanda Gulsrud
- University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Connie Kasari
- University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Morrel J, Singapuri K, Landa RJ, Reetzke R. Neural correlates and predictors of speech and language development in infants at elevated likelihood for autism: a systematic review. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1211676. [PMID: 37662636 PMCID: PMC10469683 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1211676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an increasingly prevalent and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition, characterized by social communicative differences, and a combination of repetitive behaviors, focused interests, and sensory sensitivities. Early speech and language delays are characteristic of young autistic children and are one of the first concerns reported by parents; often before their child's second birthday. Elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying these delays has the potential to improve early detection and intervention efforts. To fill this gap, this systematic review aimed to synthesize evidence on early neurobiological correlates and predictors of speech and language development across different neuroimaging modalities in infants with and without a family history of autism [at an elevated (EL infants) and low likelihood (LL infants) for developing autism, respectively]. A comprehensive, systematic review identified 24 peer-reviewed articles published between 2012 and 2023, utilizing structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; n = 2), functional MRI (fMRI; n = 4), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS; n = 4), and electroencephalography (EEG; n = 14). Three main themes in results emerged: compared to LL infants, EL infants exhibited (1) atypical language-related neural lateralization; (2) alterations in structural and functional connectivity; and (3) mixed profiles of neural sensitivity to speech and non-speech stimuli, with some differences detected as early as 6 weeks of age. These findings suggest that neuroimaging techniques may be sensitive to early indicators of speech and language delays well before overt behavioral delays emerge. Future research should aim to harmonize experimental paradigms both within and across neuroimaging modalities and additionally address the feasibility, acceptability, and scalability of implementing such methodologies in non-academic, community-based settings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Morrel
- Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Kripi Singapuri
- Center for Neurodevelopmental and Imaging Research, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Rebecca J. Landa
- Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Rachel Reetzke
- Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Huberty S, O’Reilly C, Carter Leno V, Steiman M, Webb S, Elsabbagh M. Neural mechanisms of language development in infancy. INFANCY 2023; 28:754-770. [PMID: 36943905 PMCID: PMC10947526 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the neural processes underpinning individual differences in early language development is of increasing interest, as it is known to vary in typical development and to be quite heterogeneous in neurodevelopmental conditions. However, few studies to date have tested whether early brain measures are indicative of the developmental trajectory of language, as opposed to language outcomes at specific ages. We combined recordings from two longitudinal studies, including typically developing infants without a family history of autism, and infants with increased likelihood of developing autism (infant-siblings) (N = 191). Electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded at 6 months, and behavioral assessments at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months of age. Using a growth curve model, we tested whether absolute EEG spectral power at 6 months was associated with concurrent language abilities, and developmental change in language between 6 and 36 months. We found evidence of an association between 6-month alpha-band power and concurrent, but not developmental change in, expressive language ability in both infant-siblings and control infants. The observed association between 6-month alpha-band power and 6-month expressive language was not moderated by group status, suggesting some continuity in neural mechanisms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Scott Huberty
- Montreal Neurological InstituteMcGill UniversityMontrealQuebecCanada
| | | | - Virginia Carter Leno
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and NeuroscienceKing's College LondonLondonUK
| | - Mandy Steiman
- Montreal Neurological InstituteMcGill UniversityMontrealQuebecCanada
| | - Sara Webb
- Center on Child Health, Behavior and DevelopmentSeattle Children's Research InstituteSeattleWashingtonUSA
| | - Mayada Elsabbagh
- Montreal Neurological InstituteMcGill UniversityMontrealQuebecCanada
| | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Ren M, Dey N, Styner MA, Botteron KN, Gerig G. Local Spatiotemporal Representation Learning for Longitudinally-consistent Neuroimage Analysis. ADVANCES IN NEURAL INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS 2022; 35:13541-13556. [PMID: 37614415 PMCID: PMC10445502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
Recent self-supervised advances in medical computer vision exploit the global and local anatomical self-similarity for pretraining prior to downstream tasks such as segmentation. However, current methods assume i.i.d. image acquisition, which is invalid in clinical study designs where follow-up longitudinal scans track subject-specific temporal changes. Further, existing self-supervised methods for medically-relevant image-to-image architectures exploit only spatial or temporal self-similarity and do so via a loss applied only at a single image-scale, with naive multi-scale spatiotemporal extensions collapsing to degenerate solutions. To these ends, this paper makes two contributions: (1) It presents a local and multi-scale spatiotemporal representation learning method for image-to-image architectures trained on longitudinal images. It exploits the spatiotemporal self-similarity of learned multi-scale intra-subject image features for pretraining and develops several feature-wise regularizations that avoid degenerate representations; (2) During finetuning, it proposes a surprisingly simple self-supervised segmentation consistency regularization to exploit intra-subject correlation. Benchmarked across various segmentation tasks, the proposed framework outperforms both well-tuned randomly-initialized baselines and current self-supervised techniques designed for both i.i.d. and longitudinal datasets. These improvements are demonstrated across both longitudinal neurodegenerative adult MRI and developing infant brain MRI and yield both higher performance and longitudinal consistency.
Collapse
|
10
|
Zhang F, Moerman F, Niu H, Warreyn P, Roeyers H. Atypical brain network development of infants at elevated likelihood for autism spectrum disorder during the first year of life. Autism Res 2022; 15:2223-2237. [PMID: 36193817 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by behavioral features that appear early in life. Although studies have shown that atypical brain functional and structural connectivity are associated with these behavioral traits, the occurrence and initial alterations of brain networks have not been fully investigated. The current study aimed to map early brain network efficiency and information transferring in infants at elevated likelihood (EL) compared to infants at typical likelihood (TL) for ASD in the first year of life. This study used a resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) approach to obtain the length and strength of functional connections in the frontal and temporal areas in 45 5-month-old and 38 10-month-old infants. Modular organization and small-world properties were detected in both EL and TL infants at 5 and 10 months. In 5-month-old EL infants, local and nodal efficiency were significantly greater than age-matched TL infants, indicating overgrown local connections. Furthermore, we used a support vector machine (SVM) model to classify infants with or without EL based on the obtained global properties of the network, achieving an accuracy of 77.6%. These results suggest that infants with EL for ASD exhibit inefficiencies in the organization of brain networks during the first year of life.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fen Zhang
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Floor Moerman
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Haijing Niu
- State Key Lab. of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Petra Warreyn
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Herbert Roeyers
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Ravi S, Bradshaw A, Abdi H, Meera SS, Parish-Morris J, Yankowitz L, Paterson S, Dager SR, Burrows CA, Chappell C, St.John T, Estes AM, Piven J, Swanson MR. Are early social communication skills a harbinger for language development in infants later diagnosed autistic?-A longitudinal study using a standardized social communication assessment. FRONTIERS IN COMMUNICATION 2022; 7:977724. [PMID: 37168581 PMCID: PMC10167971 DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.977724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
The early emergence of social communication challenges and their impact on language in infants later diagnosed with autism has sparked many early intervention programs that target social communication skills. While research has consistently shown lower scores on social communication assessments in the first year of life, there is limited research at 12-months exploring associations between different dimensions of social communication and later language. Understanding associations between early social communication skills and language would enhance our ability to choose high priority intervention goals that will impact downstream language skills. The current study used a standardized assessment to profile social communication skills across 516 infants with a high (HL) or low likelihood (LL-Neg) for autism (84% White, 60% Male), based on the presence of a sibling with autism in the family. The primary aim of the study was to profile social communication skill development in the second year of life and to evaluate associations between social communication skills and later language. HL infants who met criteria for autism (HL-ASD, N = 81) demonstrated widespread reductions in social communication skills at 12-months compared to HL infants who did not meet criteria for autism (HL-Neg, N = 277) and LL-Neg (N = 158) infants. Across all infants in the study, those with better social communication skills at 12-months had better language at 24-months. However, within group analyses indicated that infants who met criteria for autism did not show this developmental coupling until 24-months-of-age at which point social communication was positively associated with downstream language skills. The cascading pattern of reduced social communication skills as well as overall significant positive associations with later language provide further evidence for the need to support developing social communication skills prior to formal autism diagnosis, a goal that could possibly be reached through pre-emptive interventions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shruthi Ravi
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | - Allison Bradshaw
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | - Hervé Abdi
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | - Shoba Sreenath Meera
- Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India
| | - Julia Parish-Morris
- Center for Autism Research, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Lisa Yankowitz
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Sarah Paterson
- The James S. McDonnell Foundation, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Stephen R. Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Catherine A. Burrows
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Chad Chappell
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Tanya St.John
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Annette M. Estes
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Joseph Piven
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Meghan R. Swanson
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | | |
Collapse
|
12
|
Yankowitz LD, Petrulla V, Plate S, Tunc B, Guthrie W, Meera SS, Tena K, Pandey J, Swanson MR, Pruett JR, Cola M, Russell A, Marrus N, Hazlett HC, Botteron K, Constantino JN, Dager SR, Estes A, Zwaigenbaum L, Piven J, Schultz RT, Parish-Morris J. Infants later diagnosed with autism have lower canonical babbling ratios in the first year of life. Mol Autism 2022; 13:28. [PMID: 35761377 PMCID: PMC9235227 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-022-00503-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Canonical babbling-producing syllables with a mature consonant, full vowel, and smooth transition-is an important developmental milestone that typically occurs in the first year of life. Some studies indicate delayed or reduced canonical babbling in infants at high familial likelihood for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or who later receive an ASD diagnosis, but evidence is mixed. More refined characterization of babbling in the first year of life in infants with high likelihood for ASD is needed. METHODS Vocalizations produced at 6 and 12 months by infants (n = 267) taking part in a longitudinal study were coded for canonical and non-canonical syllables. Infants were categorized as low familial likelihood (LL), high familial likelihood diagnosed with ASD at 24 months (HL-ASD) or not diagnosed (HL-Neg). Language delay was assessed based on 24-month expressive and receptive language scores. Canonical babble ratio (CBR) was calculated by dividing the number of canonical syllables by the number of total syllables. Generalized linear (mixed) models were used to assess the relationship between group membership and CBR, controlling for site, sex, and maternal education. Logistic regression was used to assess whether canonical babbling ratios at 6 and 12 months predict 24-month diagnostic outcome. RESULTS No diagnostic group differences in CBR were detected at 6 months, but HL-ASD infants produced significantly lower CBR than both the HL-Neg and LL groups at 12 months. HL-Neg infants with language delay also showed reduced CBR at 12 months. Neither 6- nor 12-month CBR was significant predictors of 24-month diagnostic outcome (ASD versus no ASD) in logistic regression. LIMITATIONS Small numbers of vocalizations produced by infants at 6 months may limit the reliability of CBR estimates. It is not known if results generalize to infants who are not at high familial likelihood, or infants from more diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS Lower canonical babbling ratios are apparent by the end of the first year of life in ASD regardless of later language delay, but are also observed for infants with later language delay without ASD. Canonical babbling may lack specificity as an early marker when used on its own.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- L D Yankowitz
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - V Petrulla
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - S Plate
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - B Tunc
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - W Guthrie
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - S S Meera
- National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India
| | - K Tena
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - J Pandey
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - M R Swanson
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
| | - J R Pruett
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - M Cola
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - A Russell
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - N Marrus
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - H C Hazlett
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - K Botteron
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - J N Constantino
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - S R Dager
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - A Estes
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - L Zwaigenbaum
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - J Piven
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - R T Schultz
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - J Parish-Morris
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
13
|
Ayoub MJ, Keegan L, Tager-Flusberg H, Gill SV. Neuroimaging Techniques as Descriptive and Diagnostic Tools for Infants at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review. Brain Sci 2022; 12:602. [PMID: 35624989 PMCID: PMC9139416 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12050602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has traditionally been evaluated and diagnosed via behavioral assessments. However, increasing research suggests that neuroimaging as early as infancy can reliably identify structural and functional differences between autistic and non-autistic brains. The current review provides a systematic overview of imaging approaches used to identify differences between infants at familial risk and without risk and predictive biomarkers. Two primary themes emerged after reviewing the literature: (1) neuroimaging methods can be used to describe structural and functional differences between infants at risk and infants not at risk for ASD (descriptive), and (2) neuroimaging approaches can be used to predict ASD diagnosis among high-risk infants and developmental outcomes beyond infancy (predicting later diagnosis). Combined, the articles highlighted that several neuroimaging studies have identified a variety of neuroanatomical and neurological differences between infants at high and low risk for ASD, and among those who later receive an ASD diagnosis. Incorporating neuroimaging into ASD evaluations alongside traditional behavioral assessments can provide individuals with earlier diagnosis and earlier access to supportive resources.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria J. Ayoub
- College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; (M.J.A.); (L.K.)
| | - Laura Keegan
- College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; (M.J.A.); (L.K.)
| | - Helen Tager-Flusberg
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA;
| | - Simone V. Gill
- College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; (M.J.A.); (L.K.)
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Clairmont C, Wang J, Tariq S, Sherman HT, Zhao M, Kong XJ. The Value of Brain Imaging and Electrophysiological Testing for Early Screening of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:812946. [PMID: 35185452 PMCID: PMC8851356 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.812946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Given the significance of validating reliable tests for the early detection of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this systematic review aims to summarize available evidence of neuroimaging and neurophysiological changes in high-risk infants to improve ASD early diagnosis. We included peer-reviewed, primary research in English published before May 21, 2021, involving the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalogram (EEG), or functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in children with high risk for ASD under 24 months of age. The main exclusion criteria includes diagnosis of a genetic disorder and gestation age of less the 36 weeks. Online research was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. Article selection was conducted by two reviewers to minimize bias. This research was funded by Massachusetts General Hospital Sundry funding. IRB approval was not submitted as it was deemed unnecessary. We included 75 primary research articles. Studies showed that high-risk infants had divergent developmental trajectories for fractional anisotropy and regional brain volumes, increased CSF volume, and global connectivity abnormalities on MRI, decreased sensitivity for familiar faces, atypical lateralization during facial and auditory processing, and different spectral powers across multiple band frequencies on EEG, and distinct developmental trajectories in functional connectivity and regional oxyhemoglobin concentrations in fNIRS. These findings in infants were found to be correlated with the core ASD symptoms and diagnosis at toddler age. Despite the lack of quantitative analysis of the research database, neuroimaging and electrophysiological biomarkers have promising value for the screening of ASD as early as infancy with high accuracy, which warrants further investigation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cullen Clairmont
- Synapse Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jiuju Wang
- Synapse Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Samia Tariq
- Synapse Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Hannah Tayla Sherman
- Synapse Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Mingxuan Zhao
- Department of Business Analytics, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, United States
| | - Xue-Jun Kong
- Synapse Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Belteki Z, Lumbreras R, Fico K, Haman E, Junge C. The Vocabulary of Infants with an Elevated Likelihood and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Infant Language Studies Using the CDI and MSEL. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:ijerph19031469. [PMID: 35162492 PMCID: PMC8834732 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19031469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically accompanied by atypical language development, which can be noticeable even before diagnosis. The siblings of children diagnosed with ASD are at elevated likelihood for ASD diagnosis and have been shown to have higher prevalence rates than the general population. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies looking at the vocabulary size and development of infants with autism. One inclusion criterion was that infants were grouped either pre-diagnostically as elevated or typical likelihood or post-diagnostically as ASD or without ASD. This review focused on studies that tested infants up to 24 months of age and that assessed vocabulary either via the parent-completed MacArthur–Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) or the clinician-administered Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Our systematic search yielded 76 studies. A meta-analysis was performed on these studies that compared the vocabulary scores of EL and TL infants pre-diagnostically and the scores of ASD and non-ASD infants post-diagnostically. Both pre- and post-diagnostically, it was found that the EL and ASD infants had smaller vocabularies than their TL and non-ASD peers, respectively. The effect sizes across studies were heterogenous, prompting additional moderator analyses of age and sub-group analyses of the language measure used (CDI or MSEL) as potential moderators of the effect size. Age was found to be a moderator both in the pre- and post-diagnostical groups, however, language measure was not a moderator in either diagnostic group. Interpretations and future research directions are discussed based on these findings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zsofia Belteki
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands;
- Correspondence:
| | - Raquel Lumbreras
- Faculty of Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands;
| | - Kloe Fico
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University, 6525 XZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
| | - Ewa Haman
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland;
| | - Caroline Junge
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands;
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Bradshaw J, McCracken C, Pileggi M, Brane N, Delehanty A, Day T, Federico A, Klaiman C, Saulnier C, Klin A, Wetherby A. Early social communication development in infants with autism spectrum disorder. Child Dev 2021; 92:2224-2234. [PMID: 34786700 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Social-communication differences are a robust and defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but identifying early points of divergence in infancy has been a challenge. The current study examines social communication in 9- to 12-month-old infants who develop ASD (N = 30; 23% female; 70% white) compared to typically developing (TD) infants (N = 94, 38% female; 88% white). Results demonstrate that infants later diagnosed with ASD were already exhibiting fewer social-communication skills using eye gaze, facial expression, gestures, and sounds at 9 months (effect size: 0.42-0.89). Moreover, three unique patterns of change across distinct social-communication skills were observed within the ASD group. This study documents that observable social-communication differences for infants with ASD are unfolding by 9 months, pointing to a critical window for targeted intervention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Moira Pileggi
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Natalie Brane
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Abigail Delehanty
- John G. Rangos, Sr. School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Taylor Day
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | | | - Cheryl Klaiman
- Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.,Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Celine Saulnier
- Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.,Neurodevelopmental Assessment & Consulting Services, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Ami Klin
- Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.,Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Amy Wetherby
- Autism Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.,Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Nair A, Jalal R, Liu J, Tsang T, McDonald NM, Jackson L, Ponting C, Jeste SS, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Altered Thalamocortical Connectivity in 6-Week-Old Infants at High Familial Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4191-4205. [PMID: 33866373 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2020] [Revised: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Converging evidence from neuroimaging studies has revealed altered connectivity in cortical-subcortical networks in youth and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Comparatively little is known about the development of cortical-subcortical connectivity in infancy, before the emergence of overt ASD symptomatology. Here, we examined early functional and structural connectivity of thalamocortical networks in infants at high familial risk for ASD (HR) and low-risk controls (LR). Resting-state functional connectivity and diffusion tensor imaging data were acquired in 52 6-week-old infants. Functional connectivity was examined between 6 cortical seeds-prefrontal, motor, somatosensory, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions-and bilateral thalamus. We found significant thalamic-prefrontal underconnectivity, as well as thalamic-occipital and thalamic-motor overconnectivity in HR infants, relative to LR infants. Subsequent structural connectivity analyses also revealed atypical white matter integrity in thalamic-occipital tracts in HR infants, compared with LR infants. Notably, aberrant connectivity indices at 6 weeks predicted atypical social development between 9 and 36 months of age, as assessed with eye-tracking and diagnostic measures. These findings indicate that thalamocortical connectivity is disrupted at both the functional and structural level in HR infants as early as 6 weeks of age, providing a possible early marker of risk for ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aarti Nair
- Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA
| | - Rhideeta Jalal
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Janelle Liu
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Tawny Tsang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Nicole M McDonald
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Lisa Jackson
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Carolyn Ponting
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Shafali S Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Vouloumanos A, Yamashiro A. Building a Communication System in Infancy. MINNESOTA SYMPOSIA ON CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/9781119684527.ch2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
|
19
|
Liu J, Tsang T, Ponting C, Jackson L, Jeste SS, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Lack of neural evidence for implicit language learning in 9-month-old infants at high risk for autism. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e13078. [PMID: 33368921 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Word segmentation is a fundamental aspect of language learning, since identification of word boundaries in continuous speech must occur before the acquisition of word meanings can take place. We previously used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are less sensitive to statistical and speech cues that guide implicit word segmentation. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this process during infancy and how this may be associated with ASD risk. Here, we examined early neural signatures of language-related learning in 9-month-old infants at high (HR) and low familial risk (LR) for ASD. During natural sleep, infants underwent fMRI while passively listening to three speech streams containing strong statistical and prosodic cues, strong statistical cues only, or minimal statistical cues to word boundaries. Compared to HR infants, LR infants showed greater activity in the left amygdala for the speech stream containing statistical and prosodic cues. While listening to this same speech stream, LR infants also showed more learning-related signal increases in left temporal regions as well as increasing functional connectivity between bilateral primary auditory cortex and right anterior insula. Importantly, learning-related signal increases at 9 months positively correlated with expressive language outcome at 36 months in both groups. In the HR group, greater signal increases were additionally associated with less severe ASD symptomatology at 36 months. These findings suggest that early differences in the neural networks underlying language learning may predict subsequent language development and altered trajectories associated with ASD risk.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Janelle Liu
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Tawny Tsang
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Carolyn Ponting
- Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Lisa Jackson
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Shafali S Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Conti E, Retico A, Palumbo L, Spera G, Bosco P, Biagi L, Fiori S, Tosetti M, Cipriani P, Cioni G, Muratori F, Chilosi A, Calderoni S. Autism Spectrum Disorder and Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Early Language-Related Hallmarks across Structural MRI Study. J Pers Med 2020; 10:E275. [PMID: 33322765 PMCID: PMC7768516 DOI: 10.3390/jpm10040275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2020] [Revised: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) are developmental disorders with distinct diagnostic criteria and different epidemiology. However, a common genetic background as well as overlapping clinical features between ASD and CAS have been recently reported. To date, brain structural language-related abnormalities have been detected in both the conditions, but no study directly compared young children with ASD, CAS and typical development (TD). In the current work, we aim: (i) to test the hypothesis that ASD and CAS display neurostructural differences in comparison with TD through morphometric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based measures (ASD vs. TD and CAS vs. TD); (ii) to investigate early possible disease-specific brain structural patterns in the two clinical groups (ASD vs. CAS); (iii) to evaluate predictive power of machine-learning (ML) techniques in differentiating the three samples (ASD, CAS, TD). We retrospectively analyzed the T1-weighted brain MRI scans of 68 children (age range: 34-74 months) grouped into three cohorts: (1) 26 children with ASD (mean age ± standard deviation: 56 ± 11 months); (2) 24 children with CAS (57 ± 10 months); (3) 18 children with TD (55 ± 13 months). Furthermore, a ML analysis based on a linear-kernel Support Vector Machine (SVM) was performed. All but one brain structures displayed significant higher volumes in both ASD and CAS children than TD peers. Specifically, ASD alterations involved fronto-temporal regions together with basal ganglia and cerebellum, while CAS alterations are more focused and shifted to frontal regions, suggesting a possible speech-related anomalies distribution. Caudate, superior temporal and hippocampus volumes directly distinguished the two conditions in terms of greater values in ASD compared to CAS. The ML analysis identified significant differences in brain features between ASD and TD children, whereas only some trends in the ML classification capability were detected in CAS as compared to TD peers. Similarly, the MRI structural underpinnings of two clinical groups were not significantly different when evaluated with linear-kernel SVM. Our results may represent the first step towards understanding shared and specific neural substrate in ASD and CAS conditions, which subsequently may contribute to early differential diagnosis and tailoring specific early intervention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eugenia Conti
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Alessandra Retico
- National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa Division, 56127 Pisa, Italy; (A.R.); (L.P.); (G.S.)
| | - Letizia Palumbo
- National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa Division, 56127 Pisa, Italy; (A.R.); (L.P.); (G.S.)
| | - Giovanna Spera
- National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa Division, 56127 Pisa, Italy; (A.R.); (L.P.); (G.S.)
| | - Paolo Bosco
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Laura Biagi
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Simona Fiori
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Michela Tosetti
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Paola Cipriani
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Giovanni Cioni
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Filippo Muratori
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Anna Chilosi
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
| | - Sara Calderoni
- IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy; (E.C.); (P.B.); (L.B.); (S.F.); (M.T.); (P.C.); (G.C.); (F.M.); (A.C.)
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Swanson MR. The role of caregiver speech in supporting language development in infants and toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. Dev Psychopathol 2020; 32:1230-1239. [PMID: 32893764 PMCID: PMC7872436 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579420000838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Parents play an essential role in supporting child development by providing a safe home, proper nutrition, and rich educational opportunities. In this article we focus on the role of caregiver speech in supporting development of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We review studies from typically developing children and children with autism showing that rich and responsive caregiver speech supports language development. Autism intervention studies that target caregiver speech are reviewed as are recent scientific advances from studies of typical development. The strengths and weakness of different techniques for collecting language data from caregivers and children are reviewed, and natural language samples are recommended as best practice for language research in autism. We conclude that caregivers play a powerful role in shaping their children's development and encourage researchers to adapt parent-mediated intervention studies to acknowledge individual differences in parents by using a personalized medicine approach.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Meghan R Swanson
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, TX, USA
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Gao K, Sun Y, Niu S, Wang L. Informative Feature-Guided Siamese Network for Early Diagnosis of Autism. MACHINE LEARNING IN MEDICAL IMAGING. MLMI (WORKSHOP) 2020; 12436:674-682. [PMID: 35469154 PMCID: PMC9035222 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-59861-7_68] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a complex developmental disability, and usually diagnosed with observations at around 3-4 years old based on behaviors. Studies have indicated that the early treatment, especially during early brain development in the first two years of life, can significantly improve the symptoms, therefore, it is important to identify ASD as early as possible. Most previous works employed imaging-based biomarkers for the early diagnosis of ASD. However, they only focused on extracting features from the intensity images, ignoring the more informative guidance from segmentation and parcellation maps. Moreover, since the number of autistic subjects is always much smaller than that of normal subjects, this class-imbalance issue makes the ASD diagnosis more challenging. In this work, we propose an end-to-end informative feature-guided Siamese network for the early ASD diagnosis. Specifically, besides T1w and T2w images, the discriminative features from segmentation and parcellation maps are also employed to train the model. To alleviate the class-imbalance issue, the Siamese network is utilized to effectively learn what makes the pair of inputs belong to the same class or different classes. Furthermore, the subject-specific attention module is incorporated to identify the ASD-related regions in an end-to-end fully automatic learning manner. Both ablation study and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, achieving an overall accuracy of 85.4%, sensitivity of 80.8%, and specificity of 86.7%.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kun Gao
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Yue Sun
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Sijie Niu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Li Wang
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Neuroimaging Markers of Risk and Pathways to Resilience in Autism Spectrum Disorder. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2020; 6:200-210. [PMID: 32839155 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.06.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2020] [Revised: 06/04/2020] [Accepted: 06/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition of largely unknown etiology. This heterogeneity of symptom presentation, combined with high rates of comorbidity with other developmental disorders and a lack of reliable biomarkers, makes diagnosing and evaluating life outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder a challenge. We review the growing literature on neuroimaging-based biomarkers of risk for the development of autism and explore evidence for resilience in some autistic individuals. The current literature suggests that neuroimaging during early infancy, in combination with prebirth and early genetic studies, is a promising tool for identifying biomarkers of risk, while studies of gene expression and DNA methylation have provided some key insights into mechanisms of resilience. With genetics and the environment contributing to both risk for the development of autism spectrum disorder and conditions for resilience, additional studies are needed to understand how risk and resilience interact mechanistically, whereby factors of risk may engender conditions for adaptation. Future studies should prioritize longitudinal designs in global cohorts, with the involvement of the autism community as partners in research to help identify domains of functioning that hold value and importance to the community.
Collapse
|
24
|
MacDuffie KE, Shen MD, Dager SR, Styner MA, Kim SH, Paterson S, Pandey J, John TS, Elison JT, Wolff JJ, Swanson MR, Botteron KN, Zwaigenbaum L, Piven J, Estes AM. Sleep Onset Problems and Subcortical Development in Infants Later Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2020; 177:518-525. [PMID: 32375538 PMCID: PMC7519575 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19060666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Sleep patterns in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to diverge from typical development in the second or third year of life. Little is known, however, about the occurrence of sleep problems in infants who later develop ASD and possible effects on early brain development. In a longitudinal neuroimaging study of infants at familial high or low risk for ASD, parent-reported sleep onset problems were examined in relation to subcortical brain volumes in the first 2 years of life. METHODS A total of 432 infants were included across three study groups: infants at high risk who developed ASD (N=71), infants at high risk who did not develop ASD (N=234), and infants at low risk (N=127). Sleep onset problem scores (derived from an infant temperament measure) were evaluated in relation to longitudinal high-resolution T1 and T2 structural imaging data acquired at 6, 12, and 24 months of age. RESULTS Sleep onset problems were more common at 6-12 months among infants who later developed ASD. Infant sleep onset problems were related to hippocampal volume trajectories from 6 to 24 months only for infants at high risk who developed ASD. Brain-sleep relationships were specific to the hippocampus; no significant relationships were found with volume trajectories of other subcortical structures examined (the amygdala, caudate, globus pallidus, putamen, and thalamus). CONCLUSIONS These findings provide initial evidence that sleep onset problems in the first year of life precede ASD diagnosis and are associated with altered neurodevelopmental trajectories in infants at high familial risk who go on to develop ASD. If replicated, these findings could provide new insights into a potential role of sleep difficulties in the development of ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Mark D. Shen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
| | | | - Martin A. Styner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
| | - Sun Hyung Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
| | - Sarah Paterson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia
| | - Juhi Pandey
- Department of Child Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
| | - Tanya St. John
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Jed T. Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
| | - Jason J. Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
| | - Meghan R. Swanson
- Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas
| | - Kelly N. Botteron
- Department of Child Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
| | - Lonnie Zwaigenbaum
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
25
|
Geng X, Kang X, Wong PCM. Autism spectrum disorder risk prediction: A systematic review of behavioral and neural investigations. PROGRESS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE 2020; 173:91-137. [PMID: 32711819 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2020.04.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/16/2023]
Abstract
A reliable diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is difficult to make until after toddlerhood. Detection in an earlier age enables early intervention, which is typically more effective. Recent studies of the development of brain and behavior in infants and toddlers have provided important insights in the diagnosis of autism. This extensive review focuses on published studies of predicting the diagnosis of autism during infancy and toddlerhood younger than 3 years using behavioral and neuroimaging approaches. After screening a total of 782 papers, 17 neuroimaging and 43 behavioral studies were reviewed. The features for prediction consist of behavioral measures using screening tools, observational and experimental methods, brain volumetric measures, and neural functional activation and connectivity patterns. The classification approaches include logistic regression, linear discriminant function, decision trees, support vector machine, and deep learning based methods. Prediction performance has large variance across different studies. For behavioral studies, the sensitivity varies from 20% to 100%, and specificity ranges from 48% to 100%. The accuracy rates range from 61% to 94% in neuroimaging studies. Possible factors contributing to this inconsistency may be partially due to the heterogeneity of ASD, different targeted populations (i.e., high-risk group for ASD and general population), age when the features were collected, and validation procedures. The translation to clinical practice requires extensive further research including external validation with large sample size and optimized feature selection. The use of multi-modal features, e.g., combination of neuroimaging and behavior, is worth further investigation to improve the prediction accuracy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiujuan Geng
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
| | - Xin Kang
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Girault JB, Swanson MR, Meera SS, Grzadzinski RL, Shen MD, Burrows CA, Wolff JJ, Pandey J, John TS, Estes A, Zwaigenbaum L, Botteron KN, Hazlett HC, Dager SR, Schultz RT, Constantino JN, Piven J. Quantitative trait variation in ASD probands and toddler sibling outcomes at 24 months. J Neurodev Disord 2020; 12:5. [PMID: 32024459 PMCID: PMC7003330 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-020-9308-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased likelihood of receiving an ASD diagnosis and exhibiting other developmental concerns. It is unknown how quantitative variation in ASD traits and broader developmental domains in older siblings with ASD (probands) may inform outcomes in their younger siblings. Methods Participants included 385 pairs of toddler siblings and probands from the Infant Brain Imaging Study. ASD probands (mean age 5.5 years, range 1.7 to 15.5 years) were phenotyped using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition (VABS-II). Siblings were assessed using the ADI-R, VABS-II, Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL), and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and received a clinical best estimate diagnosis at 24 months using DSM-IV-TR criteria (n = 89 concordant for ASD; n = 296 discordant). We addressed two aims: (1) to determine whether proband characteristics are predictive of recurrence in siblings and (2) to assess associations between proband traits and sibling dimensional outcomes at 24 months. Results Regarding recurrence risk, proband SCQ scores were found to significantly predict sibling 24-month diagnostic outcome (OR for a 1-point increase in SCQ = 1.06; 95% CI = 1.01, 1.12). Regarding quantitative trait associations, we found no significant correlations in ASD traits among proband-sibling pairs. However, quantitative variation in proband adaptive behavior, communication, and expressive and receptive language was significantly associated with sibling outcomes in the same domains; proband scores explained 9–18% of the variation in cognition and behavior in siblings with ASD. Receptive language was particularly strongly associated in concordant pairs (ICC = 0.50, p < 0.001). Conclusions Proband ASD symptomology, indexed by the SCQ, is a predictor of familial ASD recurrence risk. While quantitative variation in social communication and restricted and repetitive behavior were not associated among sibling pairs, standardized ratings of proband language and communication explained significant variation in the same domains in the sibling at 24 months, especially among toddlers with an ASD diagnosis. These data suggest that proband characteristics can alert clinicians to areas of developmental concern for young children with familial risk for ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica B Girault
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
| | - Meghan R Swanson
- Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
| | - Shoba S Meera
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.,National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India
| | - Rebecca L Grzadzinski
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Mark D Shen
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | | | - Jason J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Juhi Pandey
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Tanya St John
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Annette Estes
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | | | - Kelly N Botteron
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Heather C Hazlett
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Stephen R Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Robert T Schultz
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - John N Constantino
- Division of Child Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3376, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
27
|
Wilkinson CL, Gabard-Durnam LJ, Kapur K, Tager-Flusberg H, Levin AR, Nelson CA. Use of longitudinal EEG measures in estimating language development in infants with and without familial risk for autism spectrum disorder. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2020; 1:33-53. [PMID: 32656537 PMCID: PMC7351149 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
Language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) varies greatly among affected individuals and is a strong predictor of later outcomes. Younger siblings of children with ASD have increased risk of ASD, but also language delay. Identifying neural markers of language outcomes in infant siblings could facilitate earlier intervention and improved outcomes. This study aimed to determine whether EEG measures from the first 2-years of life can explain heterogeneity in language development in children at low- and high-risk for ASD, and to determine whether associations between EEG measures and language development are different depending on ASD risk status or later ASD diagnosis. In this prospective longitudinal study EEG measures collected between 3-24 months were used in a multivariate linear regression model to estimate participants' 24-month language development. Individual baseline longitudinal EEG measures included (1) the slope of EEG power across 3-12 months or 3-24 months of life for 6 canonical frequency bands, (2) estimated EEG power at age 6-months for the same frequency bands, and (3) terms representing the interaction between ASD risk status and EEG power measures. Modeled 24-month language scores using EEG data from either the first 2-years (Pearson R = 0.70, 95% CI 0.595-0.783, P=1x10-18) or the first year of life (Pearson R=0.66, 95% CI 0.540-0.761, P=2.5x10-14) were highly correlated with observed scores. All models included significant interaction effects of risk on EEG measures, suggesting that EEG-language associations are different depending on risk status, and that different brain mechanisms effect language development in low-versus high-risk infants.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Kush Kapur
- Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
| | | | - April R. Levin
- Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
| | - Charles A. Nelson
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Swanson MR, Hazlett HC. White matter as a monitoring biomarker for neurodevelopmental disorder intervention studies. J Neurodev Disord 2019; 11:33. [PMID: 31839003 PMCID: PMC6912948 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-019-9295-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2019] [Accepted: 11/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Early intervention is a valuable tool to support the development of toddlers with neurodevelopmental disorders. With recent research advances in early identification that allow for pre-symptomatic detection of autism in infancy, scientists are looking forward to intervention during infancy. These advances may be supported by the identification of biologically based treatment and outcome measures that are sensitive and dimensional. The purpose of this review is to evaluate white matter neurodevelopment as a monitoring biomarker for early treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as used as exemplars. White matter has unique neurobiology, including a prolonged period of dynamic development. This developmental pattern may make white matter especially responsive to treatment. White matter develops aberrantly in children with ASD and FXS. Histologic studies in rodents have provided targets for FXS pharmacological intervention. However, pharmaceutical clinical trials in humans failed to garner positive clinical results. In this article, we argue that the use of neurobiological monitoring biomarkers may overcome some of these limitations, as they are objective, not susceptible to placebo effects, and are dimensional in nature. SHORT CONCLUSION As the field moves towards earlier detection and early intervention for neurodevelopmental disorders, we encourage scientists to consider the advantages of using neurobiological features as monitoring biomarkers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Meghan R Swanson
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, GR41, 800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080-3021, USA.
| | - Heather C Hazlett
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599, NC, USA
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Girault JB, Piven J. The Neurodevelopment of Autism from Infancy Through Toddlerhood. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 2019; 30:97-114. [PMID: 31759576 DOI: 10.1016/j.nic.2019.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) emerges during early childhood and is marked by a relatively narrow window in which infants transition from exhibiting normative behavioral profiles to displaying the defining features of the ASD phenotype in toddlerhood. Prospective brain imaging studies in infants at high familial risk for autism have revealed important insights into the neurobiology and developmental unfolding of ASD. In this article, we review neuroimaging studies of brain development in ASD from birth through toddlerhood, relate these findings to candidate neurobiological mechanisms, and discuss implications for future research and translation to clinical practice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica B Girault
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 101 Renee Lynne Court, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 101 Renee Lynne Court, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Swanson MR, Donovan K, Paterson S, Wolff JJ, Parish-Morris J, Meera SS, Watson LR, Estes AM, Marrus N, Elison JT, Shen MD, McNeilly HB, MacIntyre L, Zwaigenbaum L, St John T, Botteron K, Dager S, Piven J. Early language exposure supports later language skills in infants with and without autism. Autism Res 2019; 12:1784-1795. [PMID: 31254329 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2019] [Accepted: 06/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The way that parents communicate with their typically developing infants is associated with later infant language development. Here we aim to show that these associations are observed in infants subsequently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study had three groups: high-familial-risk infants who did not have ASD (n = 46); high-familial-risk infants who had ASD (n = 14); and low-familial-risk infants who exhibited typical development (n = 36). All-day home language recordings were collected at 9 and 15 months, and language skills were assessed at 24 months. Across all infants in the study, including those with ASD, a richer home language environment (e.g., hearing more adult words and experiencing more conversational turns) at 9 and 15 months was associated with better language skills. Higher parental educational attainment was associated with a richer home language environment. Mediation analyses showed that the effect of education on child language skills was explained by the richness of the home language environment. Exploratory analyses revealed that typically developing infants experience an increase in caregiver-child conversational turns across 9-15 months, a pattern not seen in children with ASD. The current study shows that parent behavior during the earliest stages of life can have a significant impact on later development, highlighting the home language environment as means to support development in infants with ASD. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1784-1795. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: It has long been understood that caregiver speech supports language skills in typically developing infants. In this study, parents of infants who were later diagnosed with ASD and parents of infants in the control groups completed all-day home language recordings. We found that for all infants in our study, those who heard more caregiver speech had better language skills later in life. Parental education level was also related to how much caregiver speech an infant experienced.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Meghan R Swanson
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas.,Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Kevin Donovan
- Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Sarah Paterson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jason J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Julia Parish-Morris
- Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Shoba S Meera
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Linda R Watson
- Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Annette M Estes
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
| | - Natasha Marrus
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
| | - Jed T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Mark D Shen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Heidi B McNeilly
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Leigh MacIntyre
- McGill Center for Integrative Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Lonnie Zwaigenbaum
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.,Autism Research Centre (E209), Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Tanya St John
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
| | - Kelly Botteron
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.,Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
| | - Stephen Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.,Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | | |
Collapse
|
31
|
Yamashiro A, Vouloumanos A. Are linguistic and social-pragmatic abilities separable in neurotypical infants and infants later diagnosed with ASD? Dev Psychol 2019; 55:920-933. [PMID: 30730173 PMCID: PMC6555415 DOI: 10.1037/dev0000676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Adult humans process communicative interactions by recognizing that information is being communicated through speech (linguistic ability) and simultaneously evaluating how to respond appropriately (social-pragmatic ability). These abilities may originate in infancy. Infants understand how speech communicates in social interactions, helping them learn language and how to interact with others. Infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who show deficits in social-pragmatic abilities, differ in how they attend to the linguistic and social-pragmatic information in their environment. Despite their interdependence, experimental measures of language and social-pragmatic attention are often studied in isolation in infancy. Thus, the extent to which language and social-pragmatic abilities are related constructs remains unknown. Understanding how related or separable language and social-pragmatic abilities are in infancy may reveal whether these abilities are supported by distinguishable developmental mechanisms. This study uses a single communicative scene to examine whether real-time linguistic and social-pragmatic attention are separable in neurotypical infants and infants later diagnosed with ASD, and whether attending to linguistic and social-pragmatic information separately predicts later language and social-pragmatic abilities 1 year later. For neurotypical 12-month-olds and 12-month-olds later diagnosed with ASD, linguistic attention was not correlated with concurrent social-pragmatic attention. Furthermore, infants' real-time attention to the linguistic and social-pragmatic aspects of the scene at 12 months predicted and distinguished language and social-pragmatic abilities at 24 months. Language and social-pragmatic attention during communication are thus separable in infancy and may follow distinguishable developmental trajectories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Collapse
|
32
|
Early behavioral indices of inherited liability to autism. Pediatr Res 2019; 85:127-133. [PMID: 30356093 PMCID: PMC6353672 DOI: 10.1038/s41390-018-0217-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2018] [Revised: 10/03/2018] [Accepted: 10/08/2018] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The observed heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-and the diversity of rare germline mutations with which it has been associated-has been difficult to reconcile with knowledge of its pronounced heritability in the population. METHODS This article reviews and synthesizes recent family and developmental studies incorporating behavioral indices of inherited risk for ASD. RESULTS Autism may arise from critical combinations of early inherited neurobehavioral susceptibilities-some specific to autism, some not-each of which may be traceable to partially-independent sets of genetic variation. These susceptibilities and their respective genetic origins may not relate to the characterizing symptoms of autism (after it develops) in a straightforward way, and may account for "missing heritability" in molecular genetic studies. CONCLUSIONS Within-individual aggregations of a finite set of early inherited neurobehavioral susceptibilities-each individually common in the population-may account for a significant share of the heritability of ASD. Comprehensive identification of these underlying traits my help elucidate specific early intervention targets in individual patients, especially if autism represents a developmental consequence of earlier-interacting susceptibilities. Scientific understanding of the early ontogeny of autism will benefit from epidemiologically-rigorous, genetically-informative studies of robust endophenotypic candidates whose inter-relationships in infancy are mapped and normed.
Collapse
|
33
|
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is currently a renaissance of interest in the many functions of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Altered flow of CSF, for example, has been shown to impair the clearance of pathogenic inflammatory proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyloid-β. In addition, the role of CSF in the newly discovered lymphatic system of the brain has become a prominently researched area in clinical neuroscience, as CSF serves as a conduit between the central nervous system and immune system. MAIN BODY This article will review the importance of CSF in regulating normal brain development and function, from the prenatal period throughout the lifespan, and highlight recent research that CSF abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are present in infancy, are detectable by conventional structural MRI, and could serve as an early indicator of altered neurodevelopment. CONCLUSION The identification of early CSF abnormalities in children with ASD, along with emerging knowledge of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms, has the potential to serve as early stratification biomarkers that separate children with ASD into biological subtypes that share a common pathophysiology. Such subtypes could help parse the phenotypic heterogeneity of ASD and map on to targeted, biologically based treatments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark D Shen
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Department of Psychiatry, and the UNC Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Campus Box 3367, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3367, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Marrus N, Hall LP, Paterson SJ, Elison JT, Wolff JJ, Swanson MR, Parish-Morris J, Eggebrecht AT, Pruett JR, Hazlett HC, Zwaigenbaum L, Dager S, Estes AM, Schultz RT, Botteron KN, Piven J, Constantino JN. Language delay aggregates in toddler siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder. J Neurodev Disord 2018; 10:29. [PMID: 30348077 PMCID: PMC6198516 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-018-9247-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 09/20/2018] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Language delay is extremely common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet it is unclear whether measurable variation in early language is associated with genetic liability for ASD. Assessment of language development in unaffected siblings of children with ASD can inform whether decreased early language ability aggregates with inherited risk for ASD and serves as an ASD endophenotype. METHODS We implemented two approaches: (1) a meta-analysis of studies comparing language delay, a categorical indicator of language function, and language scores, a continuous metric, in unaffected toddlers at high and low familial risk for ASD, and (2) a parallel analysis of 350 unaffected 24-month-olds in the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS), a prospective study of infants at high and low familial risk for ASD. An advantage of the former was its detection of group differences from pooled data across unique samples; an advantage of the latter was its sensitivity in quantifying early manifestations of language delay while accounting for covariates within a single large sample. RESULTS Meta-analysis showed that high-risk siblings without ASD (HR-noASD) were three to four times more likely to exhibit language delay versus low-risk siblings without ASD (LR-noASD) and had lower mean receptive and expressive language scores. Analyses of IBIS data corroborated that language delay, specifically receptive language delay, was more frequent in the HR-noASD (n = 235) versus LR-noASD group (n = 115). IBIS language scores were continuously and unimodally distributed, with a pathological shift towards decreased language function in HR-noASD siblings. The elevated inherited risk for ASD was associated with lower receptive and expressive language scores when controlling for sociodemographic factors. For receptive but not expressive language, the effect of risk group remained significant even when controlling for nonverbal cognition. CONCLUSIONS Greater frequency of language delay and a lower distribution of language scores in high-risk, unaffected toddler-aged siblings support decreased early language ability as an endophenotype for ASD, with a more pronounced effect for receptive versus expressive language. Further characterization of language development is warranted to refine genetic investigations of ASD and to elucidate factors influencing the progression of core autistic traits and related symptoms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- N Marrus
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Box 8504, St Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - L P Hall
- Department of Psychology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Mail Stop 740, Memphis, TN 38105 USA
| | - S J Paterson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1801 N. Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
| | - J T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
| | - J J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, 56 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
| | - M R Swanson
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Manning Dr, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA
| | - J Parish-Morris
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
| | - A T Eggebrecht
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, St Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - J R Pruett
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Box 8504, St Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - H C Hazlett
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Manning Dr, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA
| | - L Zwaigenbaum
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, 1E1 Walter Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre (WMC), 8440 112 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7 Canada
| | - S Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, 1410 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
| | - A M Estes
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 1701 NE Columbia Rd, Seattle, WA 98195-7920 USA
| | - R T Schultz
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
| | - K N Botteron
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Box 8504, St Louis, MO 63110 USA
| | - J Piven
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Manning Dr, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA
| | - J N Constantino
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Box 8504, St Louis, MO 63110 USA
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Shen MD, Piven J. Brain and behavior development in autism from birth through infancy. DIALOGUES IN CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE 2018. [PMID: 29398928 PMCID: PMC5789210 DOI: 10.31887/dcns.2017.19.4/mshen] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous condition that affects 1 in 68 children. Diagnosis is based on the presence of characteristic behavioral impairments that emerge in the second year of life and thus is not typically made until 3 to 4 years of age. Recent studies of early brain and behavior development have provided important new insights into the nature of this condition. Autism-specific brain imaging features have been identified as early as 6 months of age, and age-specific brain and behavior changes have been demonstrated across the first 2 years of life, highlighting the developmental nature of ASD. New findings demonstrate that early brain imaging in the first year of life holds great promise for presymptomatic prediction of ASD. There is a general understanding in medicine that earlier treatment has better outcomes than later treatment, and in autism, there is an emerging consensus that earlier intervention results in more successful outcomes for the child. Examining early brain and behavior trajectories also has the potential to parse the etiologic heterogeneity in ASD, a well-recognized impediment to developing targeted, mechanistic treatments. This review highlights the current state of the science in the pursuit of early brain and behavioral markers of autism during infancy and examines the potential implications of these findings for treatment of this condition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark D Shen
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities and Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Joseph Piven
- Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities and Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
A systematic review of structural MRI biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: A machine learning perspective. Int J Dev Neurosci 2018; 71:68-82. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2018.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2018] [Revised: 08/28/2018] [Accepted: 08/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
|