Friday, May 8, 2009: 4:40 PM
Northwest Hall Room 5 (Chicago Hilton)
M. Elsabbagh
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
E. Mercure
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
H. Garwood
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
A. Volein
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
L. A. Tucker
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
K. Hudry
,
Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, London, WC1H 0AA, United Kingdom
S. Chandler
,
Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
K. Frame
,
Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
T. Charman
,
Centre for Research in Autism and Education, Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
S. Baron-Cohen
,
Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
P. Bolton
,
Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
M. Johnson
,
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
Background: Despite a considerable number of studies focusing on the early behavioral phenotype in infants at-risk for autism, very little is known about potential differences at the level of brain processing. Most studies focusing on overt behavioral manifestations have found only subtle differences in infants at-risk compared to control groups within the first year of life, but the differences in the subgroup that goes on to develop autism becomes increasingly clear over the second year. On the other hand, some findings suggest that reliable differences in neural processing may be present within the first year.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine the neural correlates of face and gaze processing in a large group of infant siblings of children diagnosed with ASD (Sibs-ASD) compared to a control group with no family history of autism (control). Another aim was to explore how neural components could be used as predictors of the later emerging phenotype in the second year of life, through focusing on preliminary data from a small subset of cases followed longitudinally.
Methods: One hundred infants (50 sibs-ASD and 50 control) aged six to ten months were recruited for the study. Event-related potentials were recorded while infants viewed dynamic images of females displaying direct or averted gaze. Face stimuli were also compared with visual noise generated from the same faces.
Results: Relative to the control group, the sibs-ASD group showed both similarities and differences in the amplitude and latency of components related to face and gaze processing. The groups did not differ in early components related to perceptual processing but they did differ in some of the later components. Moreover, the differences do not appear to be driven by a few atypical infants in the sib-ASD group.
Conclusions: As a group, infant siblings of children with autism show differences in a number of components related to neural processing of face and eye gaze. Preliminary results from follow-up of a subset of infants in the risk group will be used to draw implications for how these early ERP differences at the group level could be mapped onto individual behavioral outcomes at two years of age, using a battery of standardized behavioral measures. The need for developing individual and continuous measures of both predictors and outcomes will be emphasized.
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