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Enhanced Social Attention in Female Infant Siblings at Risk for Autism.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a well-recognized but poorly understood phenomenon. Females are four times less likely to be diagnosed with ASD than males and, when diagnosed, are more likely to exhibit comorbid anxiety symptoms. One of the key phenotypic features of ASD is atypical attention to socially relevant stimuli. Eye-tracking studies indicate atypical patterns of spontaneous social orienting during the prodromal and early syndromic stages of ASD. However, there have been no studies evaluating sex differences in early social orienting and their potential contribution to later outcomes.We examined sex differences in social orienting in 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants at high genetic risk for ASD (n = 101) and in low-risk controls (n = 61), focusing on neurobehavioral measures of function across a spectrum of autism risk.Results suggest that, between 6 and 12 months of age, a period highly consequential for the development of nonverbal social engagement competencies, high-risk females show enhanced attention to social targets, including faces, compared to both high-risk males and low-risk males and females. Greater attention to social targets in high-risk infants was associated with less severe social impairments at 2 years.The results suggest an alternative expression of autism risk in females, which manifests in infancy as increased attention toward socially relevant stimuli. This increased attention may serve as a female protective factor against ASD by providing increased access to social experiences in early development.

SUBMITTER: Chawarska K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5812780 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Enhanced Social Attention in Female Infant Siblings at Risk for Autism.

Chawarska Katarzyna K Macari Suzanne S Powell Kelly K DiNicola Lauren L Shic Frederick F

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 20151217 3

<h4>Objective</h4>Sexual dimorphism in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a well-recognized but poorly understood phenomenon. Females are four times less likely to be diagnosed with ASD than males and, when diagnosed, are more likely to exhibit comorbid anxiety symptoms. One of the key phenotypic features of ASD is atypical attention to socially relevant stimuli. Eye-tracking studies indicate atypical patterns of spontaneous social orienting during the prodromal and early syndromic stages of ASD ...[more]

PMID: 26903252

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Project description:BACKGROUND:As a neurodevelopmental disorder, symptoms of ASD likely emerge from a complex interaction between preexisting genetic vulnerabilities and the child's environment. One way to understand causal paths to ASD is to identify dimensional ASD-related traits that vary in the general population and that predispose individuals with other risk factors toward ASD. Moving beyond behavioral traits to explore underlying neurocognitive processes may further constrain the underlying genetics. Endophenotypes are quantitative, heritable, trait-related differences that are generally assessed with laboratory-based methods, can be identified in the general population, and may be more closely tied to particular causal chains that have a more restricted set of genetic roots. The most fruitful endophenotypes may be those observed in infancy, prior to the emergence of behavioral symptoms that they are hypothesized to cause. Social motivation is an ASD-related trait that is highly heritable. In this study, we investigate whether infant endophenotypes of social attention relate to familial risk for lower social motivation in the general population. METHODS:We examined whether infant social attention (measured using habituation, EEG power, and event-related potential tasks previously used in infants/toddlers with ASD) varies quantitatively with parental social motivation in 117 six-month-old and 106 twelve-month-old typically developing infants assessed cross-sectionally. To assess heritable aspects of social motivation, primary caregiver biological parents completed two self-report measures of social avoidance and discomfort that have shown high heritability in previous work. RESULTS:Parents with higher social discomfort and avoidance had infants who showed shorter looks to faces but not objects; reduced theta power during naturalistic social attention; and smaller P400 responses to faces versus objects. CONCLUSIONS:Early reductions in social attention are continuously related to lower parental social motivation. Alterations in social attention may be infant endophenotypes of social motivation traits related to ASD.

Project description:Although reduced social attention and increased nonsocial attention have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the studies have relied on predominantly male samples and have been underpowered to examine sex differences. These processes may differ for females with ASD, who have been shown to be dissimilar to males in social motivation and nonsocial features, including circumscribed interests (CI). The goal of this study was to compare social and nonsocial visual attention between males and females with ASD on a validated eye-tracking paradigm. Eighty-five school-aged (6-10 years) males and females with and without ASD completed a paired preference task of face and object stimuli (half of which related to common CI). After covarying for chronological and mental age, the presence of concurrently presented CI images reduced prioritization and attention to faces for males more than females, replicating previous findings. ASD females maintained comparable attention patterns to typically developing females, suggesting that previous findings of reduced social attention and increased attention to CI-related objects in autism may be specific to males. These findings are also inconsistent with the "extreme male brain" theory of autism. The more normative orienting and attention to social stimuli for females with ASD may indicate distinct phenotypic characteristics relative to males and possibly serve as a protective effect. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1264-1275. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: As autism is more commonly diagnosed in males, less is known about females with autism. Two areas of interest include the interests held by individuals with autism and how socially motivated they are. We used eye tracking as a way to understand these two areas. Our data reveal that elementary school-aged females (6-10 years) with autism attended to faces comparatively to females without autism, suggesting that (1) they were more socially motivated than males with autism and (2) the images of common interests were less motivating to them.

Project description:Purpose Differences in communication development impact long-term outcomes of children with autism. Previous research has identified factors associated with communication in children with autism, but much of the variance in communication skill remains unexplained. It has been proposed that early differences in sensory responsiveness (i.e., hyporesponsiveness, hyperresponsiveness, and sensory seeking) may produce "cascading effects" on communication. Evidence for this theory is limited, however, as relations between sensory responsiveness and communication in the earliest stages of development have not been well established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate (a) whether infants with a heightened likelihood of autism diagnosis (i.e., infants with an older sibling with autism) differ from infants at general population-level likelihood of autism (i.e., infants with an older, nonautistic sibling) on patterns of sensory responsiveness, (b) whether early sensory responsiveness is correlated with concurrent communication, and (c) whether the aforementioned between-groups differences and associations are moderated by age. Method Participants were 40 infants (20 infants with an older sibling with autism, 20 infants with an older, nonautistic sibling) aged 12-18 months. A series of observational and parent report measures of sensory responsiveness and communication skill were administered. Results Group differences in sensory responsiveness across the 12- to 18-month period were limited (i.e., only observed for one measure of hyporesponsiveness), though selected differences in sensory responsiveness (i.e., parent-reported hyperresponsiveness and sensory seeking) emerged between groups over this developmental window. Parent-reported hyporesponsiveness was unconditionally, negatively associated with communication skills. Associations between expressive communication and (a) parent-reported sensory seeking and (b) an observational measure of hyperresponsiveness were moderated by age. Conclusions This study provides new insights into the nature of sensory responsiveness and theorized links with communication skill in infants at elevated and general population-level likelihood of autism diagnosis. Further work is needed to better characterize the effects of interest in a larger sample spanning a wider age range. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14515542.

Dataset Information

Enhanced Social Attention in Female Infant Siblings at Risk for Autism.

Publications

Enhanced Social Attention in Female Infant Siblings at Risk for Autism.

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