Exploring cortical activation and connectivity in infants with and without familial risk for autism during naturalistic social interactions: A preliminary study |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, 540 S College Ave., Newark, DE, USA;2. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 320 McKinly Lab, Newark, DE, USA;3. Biomechanics & Movement Science Program, University of Delaware, 540 S College Ave., Newark, DE, USA;4. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA;5. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA;6. Department of Neurology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA;1. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, United States;2. University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, United States;3. Indiana University School of Medicine, United States;1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, United States;2. Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University, United States;1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany;2. Department of Psychology, Regensburg University, Regensburg, Germany;3. Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany;4. Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany;5. Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany;6. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany;1. Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China;2. Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China |
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| Abstract: | Behavioral signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are typically observable by the second year of life and a reliable diagnosis of ASD is possible by 2 to 3 years of age. Studying infants with familial risk for ASD allows for the investigation of early signs of ASD risk within the first year. Brain abnormalities such as hyper-connectivity within the first year may precede the overt signs of ASD that emerge later in life. In this preliminary study, we use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), an infant-friendly neuroimaging tool that is relatively robust against motion artifacts, to examine functional activation and connectivity during naturalistic social interactions in 9 high-risk (HR; older sibling with ASD) and 6 low-risk (LR; no family history of ASD) infants from 6 to 9 months of age. We obtained two 30-second baseline periods and a 5-minute social interaction period. HR infants showed reduced right and left-hemispheric activation compared to LR infants based on oxy (HbO2) and deoxy (HHb) signal trends. HR infants also had greater functional connectivity than LR infants during the pre- and post-social periods and showed a drop in connectivity during the social period. Our findings are consistent with previous work suggesting early differences in cortical activation associated with familial risk for ASD, and highlight the promise of fNIRS in evaluating potential markers of ASD risk during naturalistic social contexts. |
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| Keywords: | Infants Autism spectrum disorder Social interaction fNIRS Cortical activation Functional connectivity |
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