A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to the Early Identification of Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex, highly heritable disorder that involves primary impairments in language and communication.  The disorder is heterogeneous, longer-term outcomes vary considerably, and in families that have a diagnosed child, other relatives may share some behavioral features without meeting diagnostic criteria.  At around 12 months of age, delays in major language and communication milestones are first reported for children later diagnosed with ASD, but thus far, relatively little is known about signs that may be detected during the first year of life.  In this talk I will focus on a research program being conducted with Helen Tager-Flusberg designed to address this important clinical and theoretical issue by investigating the early development of infants at risk for this disorder.  Here we define risk as having an older sibling with the disorder.  After briefly reviewing the extant literature on the study of so-called “infant sibs,” I will turn my attention to an ongoing longitudinal study focused on infants with and without an older sibling with an ASD.  This research is based on the premise that because the behavioral repertoire of the infant is so limited, we are unlikely to observe behavioral signs that predict autism.  Thus, we seek instead to examine neural manifestations of the disorder.  In this context I will review our EEG, ERP, fNIRS and eye tracking findings to date, which collectively have permitted us to distinguish high vs. low risk infants and possibly predict who among the high risk infants develop an ASD.