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Nayar K, Landau E, Martin GE, Stevens CJ, Xing J, Sophia P, Guilfoyle J, Gordon PC, Losh M. Narrative Ability in Autism and First-Degree Relatives. J Autism Dev Disord 2024:10.1007/s10803-024-06424-0. [PMID: 39060703 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06424-0] [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] [Accepted: 05/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024]
Abstract
Narrative is an important communication skill for sharing personal experiences and connecting with others. Narrative skills are often impacted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and have important consequences for social interactions and relationships. Subtle differences in narrative have also been reported among first-degree relatives of autistic individuals, suggesting that narrative may also be an etiologically important language-related skill that is influenced by genes associated with ASD. This study examined narrative ability and related visual attention during narration in ASD and first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD (siblings and parents) to understand how narrative and related attentional styles may be variably impacted across the spectrum of ASD genetic influence. Participants included 56 autistic individuals, 42 siblings of autistic individuals, 49 controls, 161 parents of autistic individuals, and 61 parent controls. Narratives were elicited using a wordless picture book presented on an eye tracker to record concurrent gaze. Findings revealed parallel patterns of narrative differences among ASD and sibling groups in the use of causal language to connect story elements and the use of cognitive and affective language. More subtle differences within the domain of causal language were evident in ASD parents. Parallel patterns in the ASD and sibling groups were also found for gaze during narration. Findings implicate causal language as a critical narrative skill that is impacted in ASD and may be reflective of ASD genetic influence in relatives. Gaze patterns during narration suggest similar attentional mechanisms associated with narrative among ASD families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kritika Nayar
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | - Emily Landau
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | | | - Cassandra J Stevens
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | - Jiayin Xing
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | - Pirog Sophia
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | - Janna Guilfoyle
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA
| | - Peter C Gordon
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Molly Losh
- Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Frances Searle Building, #2-366, Evanston, IL, 6020, USA.
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Hou W, Jiang Y, Yang Y, Zhu L, Li J. Evaluating the validity of eye-tracking tasks and stimuli in detecting high-risk infants later diagnosed with autism: A meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 2024; 112:102466. [PMID: 39033664 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 07/02/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 07/23/2024]
Abstract
Gaze abnormalities are well documented in infants at elevated risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, variations in experimental design and stimuli across studies have led to mixed results. The current meta-analysis aimed to identify which type of eye tracking task and stimulus are most effective at differentiating high-risk infants (siblings of children with ASD) who later meet diagnosis criteria from low-risk infants without familial autism. We synthesized 35 studies that used eye tracking to investigate gaze behavior in infants at high genetic risk for autism before 2 years of age. We found that stimulus features, regions of interest (ROIs) and study quality moderated effect sizes across studies. Overall, dynamic stimuli and socially-relevant regions in the social stimuli (i.e. the target and activity of characters' shared focus) reliably detected high-risk infants who later develop ASD. Attention disengagement task and stimuli depicting interactions between human and nonhuman characters could identify high-risk infants who later develop ASD and those who have autism-related symptoms but do not meet the diagnostic criteria as well. These findings provide sensitive and reliable early markers of ASD, which is helpful to develop objective and quantitative early autism screening and intervention tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenwen Hou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yingying Jiang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yunmei Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Liqi Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
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3
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Arutiunian V, Santhosh M, Neuhaus E, Sullivan CAW, Bernier RA, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Geschwind DH, Jack A, McPartland JC, Van Horn JD, Pelphrey KA, Gupta AR, Webb SJ. A common genetic variant in the Neurexin family member CNTNAP2 is related to language but not communication skills in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Res 2024. [PMID: 38984666 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3193] [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: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2024] [Indexed: 07/11/2024]
Abstract
One of the candidate genes related to language variability in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the contactin-associated protein-like 2 gene (CNTNAP2), a member of the Neurexin family. However, due to the different assessment tools used, it is unknown whether the polymorphisms of the CNTNAP2 gene are linked to structural language skills or more general communication abilities. A total of 302 youth aged 7 to 18 years participated in the present study: 131 verbal youth with ASD (62 female), 130 typically developing (TD) youth (64 female), and 41 unaffected siblings (US) of youth with ASD (25 female). Blood samples were collected to obtain genomic DNA and processed by the Rutgers University Cell and Data Repository or using standard protocols (Gentra Puregene Blood DNA extraction kit; Qiagen). Language and verbal communication skills were screened with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamental-4 (CELF-4) and Vineland-II Communication domain, subsequently. The results showed that the polymorphism of CNTNAP2 (SNP rs2710102) was related to structural language abilities, such that participants carrying the A-allele had lower language skills in comparison to the G-allele homozygotes. No relationship was found between the polymorphism of CNTNAP2 and more general communication abilities. Although the study revealed genetic mechanisms that are associated with CELF-4 measures but not Vineland-II in youth with ASD, follow-up studies are needed that will include measures of language and communication that are less correlated to each other as well as will include a group of minimally and/or non-verbal individuals with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vardan Arutiunian
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Megha Santhosh
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Emily Neuhaus
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | | | - Raphael A Bernier
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Daniel H Geschwind
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Allison Jack
- Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - James C McPartland
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - John D Van Horn
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Kevin A Pelphrey
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Virginia, USA
| | - Abha R Gupta
- Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Sara Jane Webb
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
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Ambarchi Z, Boulton KA, Thapa R, Arciuli J, DeMayo MM, Hickie IB, Thomas EE, Guastella AJ. Social and joint attention during shared book reading in young autistic children: a potential marker for social development. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2024. [PMID: 38659350 DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13993] [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] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Atypical patterns of social engagement and joint attention behaviors are diagnostic criteria for people with autism spectrum disorder. Experimental tasks using eye-tracking methodologies have, however, shown inconsistent results. The development of tasks with greater ecological validity and relevance for developmentally appropriate social milestones has been identified as important for the field. METHODS We developed a novel, dynamic eye-tracking task emulating a shared book reading (SBR) scenario. Four SBR videos of an adult reader engaging with the viewer while reading a children's picture book and including sequenced bids for joint attention were developed. Participants included 90 children (N = 56 autistic children, N = 34 neurotypical children; aged 3-12). Social attention was also measured in a live free play task between participants and an experimenter. RESULTS Compared to neurotypical children, autistic children displayed reduced attention to socially salient stimuli including the reader's face and picture book across SBR videos and during joint attention bids specifically. In contrast, they showed increased attention to nonsalient background stimuli compared to their neurotypical peers. These attention patterns in autistic children were associated with reduced verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills and increased symptoms associated with autism. Interestingly, positive correlations in the frequency of eye gaze between SBR and free play suggested a potential predictive value for social attention in live social interactions. CONCLUSIONS Findings highlight the utility of SBR eye-tracking tasks in understanding underlying divergences in social engagement and joint attention between autistic and neurotypical children. This commonly practiced early childhood activity may provide insights into the relationship between social engagement and learning to reveal how such attentional patterns might influence broader developmental and educational outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zahava Ambarchi
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kelsie A Boulton
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Rinku Thapa
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Joanne Arciuli
- Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Marilena M DeMayo
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ian B Hickie
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Emma E Thomas
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Adam J Guastella
- Clinic for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (CAN Research), Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
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Jenner LA, Farran EK, Welham A, Jones C, Moss J. The use of eye-tracking technology as a tool to evaluate social cognition in people with an intellectual disability: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Neurodev Disord 2023; 15:42. [PMID: 38044457 PMCID: PMC10694880 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-023-09506-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Relatively little is known about social cognition in people with intellectual disability (ID), and how this may support understanding of co-occurring autism. A limitation of previous research is that traditional social-cognitive tasks place a demand on domain-general cognition and language abilities. These tasks are not suitable for people with ID and lack the sensitivity to detect subtle social-cognitive processes. In autism research, eye-tracking technology has offered an effective method of evaluating social cognition-indicating associations between visual social attention and autism characteristics. The present systematic review synthesised research which has used eye-tracking technology to study social cognition in ID. A meta-analysis was used to explore whether visual attention on socially salient regions (SSRs) of stimuli during these tasks correlated with degree of autism characteristics presented on clinical assessment tools. METHOD Searches were conducted using four databases, research mailing lists, and citation tracking. Following in-depth screening and exclusion of studies with low methodological quality, 49 articles were included in the review. A correlational meta-analysis was run on Pearson's r values obtained from twelve studies, reporting the relationship between visual attention on SSRs and autism characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Eye-tracking technology was used to measure different social-cognitive abilities across a range of syndromic and non-syndromic ID groups. Restricted scan paths and eye-region avoidance appeared to impact people's ability to make explicit inferences about mental states and social cues. Readiness to attend to social stimuli also varied depending on social content and degree of familiarity. A meta-analysis using a random effects model revealed a significant negative correlation (r = -.28, [95% CI -.47, -.08]) between visual attention on SSRs and autism characteristics across ID groups. Together, these findings highlight how eye-tracking can be used as an accessible tool to measure more subtle social-cognitive processes, which appear to reflect variability in observable behaviour. Further research is needed to be able to explore additional covariates (e.g. ID severity, ADHD, anxiety) which may be related to visual attention on SSRs, to different degrees within syndromic and non-syndromic ID groups, in order to determine the specificity of the association with autism characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- L A Jenner
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK.
| | - E K Farran
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK
| | - A Welham
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - C Jones
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - J Moss
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK
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6
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Mosconi MW, Stevens CJ, Unruh KE, Shafer R, Elison JT. Endophenotype trait domains for advancing gene discovery in autism spectrum disorder. J Neurodev Disord 2023; 15:41. [PMID: 37993779 PMCID: PMC10664534 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-023-09511-y] [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: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with a diverse range of etiological processes, including both genetic and non-genetic causes. For a plurality of individuals with ASD, it is likely that the primary causes involve multiple common inherited variants that individually account for only small levels of variation in phenotypic outcomes. This genetic landscape creates a major challenge for detecting small but important pathogenic effects associated with ASD. To address similar challenges, separate fields of medicine have identified endophenotypes, or discrete, quantitative traits that reflect genetic likelihood for a particular clinical condition and leveraged the study of these traits to map polygenic mechanisms and advance more personalized therapeutic strategies for complex diseases. Endophenotypes represent a distinct class of biomarkers useful for understanding genetic contributions to psychiatric and developmental disorders because they are embedded within the causal chain between genotype and clinical phenotype, and they are more proximal to the action of the gene(s) than behavioral traits. Despite their demonstrated power for guiding new understanding of complex genetic structures of clinical conditions, few endophenotypes associated with ASD have been identified and integrated into family genetic studies. In this review, we argue that advancing knowledge of the complex pathogenic processes that contribute to ASD can be accelerated by refocusing attention toward identifying endophenotypic traits reflective of inherited mechanisms. This pivot requires renewed emphasis on study designs with measurement of familial co-variation including infant sibling studies, family trio and quad designs, and analysis of monozygotic and dizygotic twin concordance for select trait dimensions. We also emphasize that clarification of endophenotypic traits necessarily will involve integration of transdiagnostic approaches as candidate traits likely reflect liability for multiple clinical conditions and often are agnostic to diagnostic boundaries. Multiple candidate endophenotypes associated with ASD likelihood are described, and we propose a new focus on the analysis of "endophenotype trait domains" (ETDs), or traits measured across multiple levels (e.g., molecular, cellular, neural system, neuropsychological) along the causal pathway from genes to behavior. To inform our central argument for research efforts toward ETD discovery, we first provide a brief review of the concept of endophenotypes and their application to psychiatry. Next, we highlight key criteria for determining the value of candidate endophenotypes, including unique considerations for the study of ASD. Descriptions of different study designs for assessing endophenotypes in ASD research then are offered, including analysis of how select patterns of results may help prioritize candidate traits in future research. We also present multiple candidate ETDs that collectively cover a breadth of clinical phenomena associated with ASD, including social, language/communication, cognitive control, and sensorimotor processes. These ETDs are described because they represent promising targets for gene discovery related to clinical autistic traits, and they serve as models for analysis of separate candidate domains that may inform understanding of inherited etiological processes associated with ASD as well as overlapping neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew W Mosconi
- Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
- Clinical Child Psychology Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
| | - Cassandra J Stevens
- Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
- Clinical Child Psychology Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Kathryn E Unruh
- Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Robin Shafer
- Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Jed T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Cha WJ, Kim K. Diminished emotion recognition with reduced face gaze in complex situation in individuals with broad autism phenotype. Int J Clin Health Psychol 2023; 23:100399. [PMID: 37577162 PMCID: PMC10413062 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Background/objective Individuals with broad autism phenotype (BAP) showed a diminished ability to recognize emotion. This study aims to examine whether their decline in emotion recognition ability could be more clearly identified as task complexity increased and whether their decline could be influenced by their eye-gaze patterns. Method 41 individuals with BAP and 40 healthy controls performed two types of emotion recognition tasks. After confirming conditions wherein the BAP group did not perform well compared to the control group, we compared gaze proportion on faces and context between groups when performing the conditions. Results The more difficult the task, the clearer the significant relationships between the level of autistic traits and emotion recognition ability. The BAP group showed lower accuracy compared to the control group when a face with mild emotional intensity was presented with context. In terms of gaze proportion, the BAP group looked less at faces when recognizing emotions compared to the control group. Conclusion These findings indicate that diminished emotion recognition ability in individuals with BAP may be influenced by face gaze.
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Affiliation(s)
- Woo-Jin Cha
- Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, 84, Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea
| | - Kiho Kim
- Department of Psychology of Counseling, Sejong Cyber University, Cheonho-daero 680, Gwangjingu, Seoul 04992, Republic of Korea
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8
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Wang H, Zhao X, Yu D. Nonlinear features of gaze behavior during joint attention in children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res 2023; 16:1786-1798. [PMID: 37530201 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/03/2023]
Abstract
Since children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might exhibit a variety of aberrant response to joint attention (RJA) behaviors, there is growing interest in identifying robust, reliable and valid eye-tracking metrics for determining differences in RJA behaviors between typically developing (TD) children and those with ASD. Previous eye-tracking studies have not been deeply investigated nonlinear features of gaze time-series during RJA. As a main motivation, this study aimed to extract three nonlinear features (i.e., complexity, long-range correlation, and local instability) of gaze time-series during RJA in children with ASD, which can be measured by fractal dimension (FD), Hurst exponent (H), and largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE), respectively. To illustrate our idea, this study adopted a publicly accessible database, including eye-tracking data collected during RJA from 19 children with ASD (7.74 ± 2.73) and 30 TD children (8.02 ± 2.89), and conducted a battery of nonparametric analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), where gender was used as covariable. Findings showed that gaze time-series during RJA in autistic children may generally have greater FD but lower H than that in TD controls. This implies that children with ASD possess more complex and unpredictable gaze behaviors during RJA than TD children. Furthermore, nonlinear metrics outperformed traditional eye-tracking metrics in obtaining higher identification performance with an accuracy of 82% and an AUC value of 0.81, distinguishing the differences between successful and failed RJA trails, and predicting the severity of ASD symptoms. Findings might bring some new insights into the understanding of the impairments in RJA behaviors for children with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xin Zhao
- Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Dongchuan Yu
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
- Henan Provincial Medical Key Lab of Child Developmental Behavior and Learning, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
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9
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Cirnigliaro M, Chang TS, Arteaga SA, Pérez-Cano L, Ruzzo EK, Gordon A, Bicks LK, Jung JY, Lowe JK, Wall DP, Geschwind DH. The contributions of rare inherited and polygenic risk to ASD in multiplex families. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2215632120. [PMID: 37506195 PMCID: PMC10400943 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2215632120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a complex genetic architecture involving contributions from both de novo and inherited variation. Few studies have been designed to address the role of rare inherited variation or its interaction with common polygenic risk in ASD. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing of the largest cohort of multiplex families to date, consisting of 4,551 individuals in 1,004 families having two or more autistic children. Using this study design, we identify seven previously unrecognized ASD risk genes supported by a majority of rare inherited variants, finding support for a total of 74 genes in our cohort and a total of 152 genes after combined analysis with other studies. Autistic children from multiplex families demonstrate an increased burden of rare inherited protein-truncating variants in known ASD risk genes. We also find that ASD polygenic score (PGS) is overtransmitted from nonautistic parents to autistic children who also harbor rare inherited variants, consistent with combinatorial effects in the offspring, which may explain the reduced penetrance of these rare variants in parents. We also observe that in addition to social dysfunction, language delay is associated with ASD PGS overtransmission. These results are consistent with an additive complex genetic risk architecture of ASD involving rare and common variation and further suggest that language delay is a core biological feature of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matilde Cirnigliaro
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Timothy S. Chang
- Movement Disorders Program, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Stephanie A. Arteaga
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Laura Pérez-Cano
- STALICLA Discovery and Data Science Unit, World Trade Center, Barcelona08039, Spain
| | - Elizabeth K. Ruzzo
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Aaron Gordon
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Lucy K. Bicks
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Jae-Yoon Jung
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Systems Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94304
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Jennifer K. Lowe
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Dennis P. Wall
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Systems Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94304
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Daniel H. Geschwind
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
- Movement Disorders Program, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
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Bueno-Junior LS, Jones-Tinsley CE, Milman NEP, Wickham PT, Watson BO, Lim MM. Early-life sleep disruption impairs subtle social behaviours in prairie voles: a pose-estimation study. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230700. [PMID: 37448475 PMCID: PMC10336370 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
Early-life sleep disruption (ELSD) has been shown to have long-lasting effects on social behaviour in adult prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), including impaired expression of pair bonding during partner preference testing. However, due to the limitations of manual behaviour tracking, the effects of ELSD across the time course of pair bonding have not yet been described, hindering our ability to trace mechanisms. Here, we used pose estimation to track prairie voles during opposite-sex cohabitation, the process leading to pair bonding. Male-female pairs were allowed to interact through a mesh divider in the home cage for 72 h, providing variables of body direction, distance-to-divider and locomotion speed. We found that control males displayed periodic patterns of body orientation towards females during cohabitation. In contrast, ELSD males showed reduced duration and ultradian periodicity of these body orientation behaviours towards females. Furthermore, in both sexes, ELSD altered spatial and temporal patterns of locomotion across the light/dark cycles of the 72 h recordings. This study allows a comprehensive behavioural assessment of the effects of ELSD on later life sociality and highlights subtle prairie vole behaviours. Our findings may shed light on neurodevelopmental disorders featuring sleep disruption and social deficits, such as autism spectrum disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Carolyn E. Jones-Tinsley
- Veterans Affairs VISN20 Northwest MIRECC, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, USA
- Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Noah E. P. Milman
- Veterans Affairs VISN20 Northwest MIRECC, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, USA
- Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Peyton T. Wickham
- Veterans Affairs VISN20 Northwest MIRECC, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, USA
- Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Brendon O. Watson
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Miranda M. Lim
- Veterans Affairs VISN20 Northwest MIRECC, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, USA
- Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
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Wang H, Liu F, Yu D. Complex network of eye movements during rapid automatized naming. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1024881. [PMID: 37065911 PMCID: PMC10102513 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1024881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
IntroductionAlthough the method of visualizing eye-tracking data as a time-series might enhance performance in the understanding of gaze behavior, it has not yet been thoroughly examined in the context of rapid automated naming (RAN).MethodsThis study attempted, for the first time, to measure gaze behavior during RAN from the perspective of network-domain, which constructed a complex network [referred to as gaze-time-series-based complex network (GCN)] from gaze time-series. Hence, without designating regions of interest, the features of gaze behavior during RAN were extracted by computing topological parameters of GCN. A sample of 98 children (52 males, aged 11.50 ± 0.28 years) was studied. Nine topological parameters (i.e., average degree, network diameter, characteristic path length, clustering coefficient, global efficiency, assortativity coefficient, modularity, community number, and small-worldness) were computed.ResultsFindings showed that GCN in each RAN task was assortative and possessed “small-world” and community architecture. Additionally, observations regarding the influence of RAN task types included that: (i) five topological parameters (i.e., average degree, clustering coefficient, assortativity coefficient, modularity, and community number) could reflect the difference between tasks N-num (i.e., naming of numbers) and N-cha (i.e., naming of Chinese characters); (ii) there was only one topological parameter (i.e., network diameter) which could reflect the difference between tasks N-obj (i.e., naming of objects) and N-col (i.e., naming of colors); and (iii) when compared to GCN in alphanumeric RAN, GCN in non-alphanumeric RAN may have higher average degree, global efficiency, and small-worldness, but lower network diameter, characteristic path length, clustering coefficient, and modularity. Findings also illustrated that most of these topological parameters were largely independent of traditional eye-movement metrics.DiscussionThis article revealed the architecture and topological parameters of GCN as well as the influence of task types on them, and thus brought some new insights into the understanding of RAN from the perspective of complex network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Fulin Liu
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Dongchuan Yu
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
- Henan Provincial Medical Key Lab of Child Developmental Behavior and Learning, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
- *Correspondence: Dongchuan Yu
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Mundy P. Research on social attention in autism and the challenges of the research domain criteria (RDoC) framework. Autism Res 2023; 16:697-712. [PMID: 36932883 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2023]
Abstract
The fuzzy nature of categories of psychopathology, such as autism, leads to significant research challenges. Alternatively, focusing research on the study of a common set of important and well-defined psychological constructs across psychiatric conditions may make the fundamental etiological processes of psychopathology easier to discern and treat (Cuthbert, 2022). The development of the research domain criteria (RDoC) framework is designed to guide this new research approach (Insel et al., 2010). However, progress in research may be expected to continually refine and reorganize the understanding of the specifics of these mental processes (Cuthbert & Insel, 2013). Moreover, knowledge gleaned from the study of both normative and atypical development can be mutually informative in the evolution of our understanding of these fundamental processes. A case in point is the study of social attention. This Autism 101 commentary provides an educational summary of research over the last few decades indicates that social attention is major construct in the study of human social-cognitive development, autism and other forms of psychopathology. The commentary also describes how this research can inform the Social Process dimension of the RDoC framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Mundy
- School of Education, Department of Psychiatry and the MIND Institute, University of California at Davis, Davis, California, USA
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Forby L, Anderson NC, Cheng JT, Foulsham T, Karstadt B, Dawson J, Pazhoohi F, Kingstone A. Reading the room: Autistic traits, gaze behaviour, and the ability to infer social relationships. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0282310. [PMID: 36857369 PMCID: PMC9977004 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Individuals high in autistic traits can have difficulty understanding verbal and non-verbal cues, and may display atypical gaze behaviour during social interactions. The aim of this study was to examine differences among neurotypical individuals with high and low levels of autistic traits with regard to their gaze behaviour and their ability to assess peers' social status accurately. Fifty-four university students who completed the 10-item Autism Quotient (AQ-10) were eye-tracked as they watched six 20-second video clips of people ("targets") involved in a group decision-making task. Simulating natural, everyday social interactions, the video clips included moments of debate, humour, interruptions, and cross talk. Results showed that high-scorers on the AQ-10 (i.e., those with more autistic traits) did not differ from the low-scorers in either gaze behaviour or assessing the targets' relative social status. The results based on this neurotypical group of participants suggest that the ability of individuals high in autistic traits to read social cues may be preserved in certain tasks crucial to navigating day-to-day social relationships. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theory of mind, weak central coherence, and social motivation theories of autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leilani Forby
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - Nicola C. Anderson
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Joey T. Cheng
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tom Foulsham
- Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, England
| | - Bradley Karstadt
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Jessica Dawson
- Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, England
| | - Farid Pazhoohi
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Alan Kingstone
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Yu W, Zhao F, Ren Z, Jin D, Yang X, Zhang X. Mining attention distribution paradigm: Discover gaze patterns and their association rules behind the visual image. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2023; 230:107330. [PMID: 36603232 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.107330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Revised: 11/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Attention allocation reflects the way of humans filtering and organizing the information. On one hand, different task scenarios seriously affect human's rule of attention distribution, on the other hand, visual attention reflecting the cognitive and psychological process. Most of the previous studies on visual attention allocation are based on cognitive models, predicted models, or statistical analysis of eye movement data or visual images, however, these methods are inadequate to provide an inside view of gaze behavior to reveal the attention distribution pattern within scenario context. Moreover, they seldom study the association rules of these patterns. Therefore, we adopted the big data mining approach to discover the paradigm of visual attention distribution. METHODS We applied the data mining method to extract the gaze patterns to discover the regularities of attention distribution behavior within the scenario context. The proposed method consists of three components, tasks scenario segmented and clustered, gaze pattern mining, and association rule of frequent pattern mining. RESULTS The proposed approach is tested on the operation platform. The complex operation task is simultaneously segmented and clustered with the TICC-based method and evaluated by the BCI index. The operator's eye movement frequent patterns and their association rule are discovered. The results demonstrate that our method can associate the eye-tracking data with the task-oriented scene data. DISCUSSION The proposed method provides the benefits of being able to explicitly express and quantitatively analyze people's visual attention patterns. The proposed method can not only be applied in the field of aerospace medicine and aviation psychology, but also can likely be applied to computer-aided diagnosis and follow-up tool for neurological disease and cognitive impairment related disease, such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), neglect syndrome, social attention differences in ASD (Autism spectrum disorder).
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiwei Yu
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China; Unmanned System Research Institute, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China.
| | - Feng Zhao
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China
| | - Zhijun Ren
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China
| | - Dian Jin
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China
| | - Xinliang Yang
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China; Chinese Flight Test Establishment, Xi'an, 710089, China
| | - Xiaokun Zhang
- School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University, Canada
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