Atypical postural control can be detected via computer vision analysis in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dawson G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6242931 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a reduced ability to maintain postural stability, though motor control mechanisms contributing to these issues and the extent to which they are associated with other gross motor activities (e.g., stepping) are not yet known. METHODS:Seventeen individuals with ASD and 20 typically developing (TD) controls (ages 6-19?years) completed three tests of postural control during standing. During the neutral stance, individuals stood with their feet shoulder width apart. During the Romberg one stance, they stood with feet close together. During the circular sway, participants stood with feet shoulder width apart and swayed in a circular motion. The standard deviation (SD) of their center of pressure (COP) in the mediolateral (ML) and anteroposterior (AP) directions and the COP trajectory length were examined for each stance. We also assessed mutual information (MI), or the shared dependencies between COP in the ML and AP directions. Participants also completed a stepping task in which they stepped forward from one force platform to an adjacent platform. The amplitude and duration of anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) were examined, as were the maximum lateral sway, duration, and velocity of COP adjustments following the initial step. We examined stepping variables using separate one-way ANCOVAs with height as a covariate. The relationships between postural control and stepping measures and ASD symptom severity were assessed using Spearman correlations with scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition (ADOS-2) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). RESULTS:Individuals with ASD showed increased COP trajectory length across stance conditions (p?=?0.05) and reduced MI during circular sway relative to TD controls (p?=?0.02). During stepping, groups did not differ on APA amplitude (p?=?0.97) or duration (p?=?0.41), but during their initial step, individuals with ASD showed reduced ML sway (p?=?0.06), reduced body transfer duration (p?<?0.01), and increased body transfer velocity (p?=?0.02) compared to controls. Greater neutral stance COPML variability (r?=?0.55, p?=?0.02) and decreased lateral sway (r?=?-?0.55, p?=?0.02) when stepping were associated with more severe restricted and repetitive behaviors in participants with ASD. CONCLUSIONS:We found that individuals with ASD showed reduced MI during circular sway suggesting a reduced ability to effectively coordinate joint movements during dynamic postural adjustments. Additionally, individuals with ASD showed reduced lateral sway when stepping indicating that motor rigidity may interfere with balance and gait. Postural control and stepping deficits were related to repetitive behaviors in individuals with ASD indicating that motor rigidity and key clinical issues in ASD may represent overlapping pathological processes.
| S-EPMC6945692 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Although temperament has been recognized as an important contributor to childhood psychopathology, its role in emergent autism spectrum phenotypes is not well understood. This study examined whether toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display temperamental vulnerabilities compared to toddlers with other developmental challenges, whether these characteristics are distinct from core autism symptoms, if they are stable over time, and if they contribute to social outcomes in preschool. METHODS:Parents of 165 toddlers with ASD, 58 nonverbal ability- and chronological age- (CA) matched developmentally delayed (DD) toddlers, and 92 CA-matched typically developing (TD) toddlers completed the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire-Supplemental (TBAQ-S) at 26 months (SD = 6; Time 1). TBAQ-S data were also available for a subset of toddlers with ASD (n = 126) at 43 months (SD = 9; Time 2). RESULTS:Compared to the DD and TD groups, toddlers with ASD exhibited vulnerabilities within the Effortful Control domain as well as the Surgency domain. They also displayed greater Negative Emotionality compared to TD peers. In the ASD group, temperamental characteristics were not concurrently related to autism severity or developmental level and individual differences were highly stable over time. Changes in Perceptual Sensitivity, Inhibitory Control, and Low-Intensity Pleasure from age 2 to 3.5 uniquely predicted autism symptom severity and adaptive social skill level at Time 2. CONCLUSIONS:Temperamental vulnerabilities in toddlers with ASD are stable over time and involve attentional and behavioral control as well as affective reactivity. They contribute uniquely to social outcomes in preschool and are likely to signal risk for developing later maladaptive attentional, affective, and behavioral symptoms. Considering biologically based dimensions may shed light on noncore facets of the early ASD phenotype that are potentially relevant to the emergence of comorbid conditions later in childhood.
| S-EPMC5747932 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThere is a prevailing notion that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit intense negative and attenuated positive emotions, although the empirical evidence regarding their emotional expressiveness (EE) is limited. Given the importance of emotions in shaping social and cognitive development, we examined intensity and valence of EE and links between EE and autism severity and parent-reported temperament in ASD.MethodToddlers (aged 21.2 months) with ASD (n = 43), developmental delay (DD, n = 16), and typical development (TD, n = 40) underwent standardized probes designed to induce anger, joy, and fear. Intensity of EE through facial and vocal channels were coded offline. Autism severity and temperament were quantified using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) and Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ).ResultsThe ASD group exhibited less intense fear compared to both the DD and TD groups, more intense anger than DD but not TD, with no differences in joy intensity. All groups showed similar levels of incongruous negative EE. Intensity of fear and anger were not associated with severity of autism symptoms, but lower intensity of joy was related to greater autism severity. Expressed fear and joy were associated with temperament.ConclusionThe study provides no support for a negative emotionality bias in ASD. Instead, toddlers with ASD display a muted response to threat and an accentuated response to goal blockage, whereas the ability to express positive emotions appears intact. Negative emotionality and social disability dimensions are independent. The study demonstrates the complexity of EE in ASD and motivates investigations into underlying mechanisms as well as its role in shaping complex phenotypes of affected children.
| S-EPMC6844292 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is increasingly understood to be associated with aberrant functional brain connectivity. Few studies, however, have described such atypical neural synchrony among specific brain regions. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to characterize alterations in functional connectivity in adolescents with ASD through source space analysis of phase synchrony. Resting-state MEG data were collected from 16 adolescents with ASD and 15 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) adolescents. Atlas-guided reconstruction of neural activity at various cortical and subcortical regions was performed and inter-regional phase synchrony was calculated in physiologically relevant frequency bands. Using a multilevel approach, we characterized atypical resting-state synchrony within specific anatomically defined networks as well as altered network topologies at both regional and whole-network scales. Adolescents with ASD demonstrated frequency-dependent alterations in inter-regional functional connectivity. Hyperconnectivity was observed among the frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions in beta and gamma frequency ranges. In contrast, parietal and occipital regions were hypoconnected to widespread brain regions in theta and alpha bands in ASD. Furthermore, we isolated a hyperconnected network in the gamma band in adolescents with ASD which encompassed orbitofrontal, subcortical, and temporal regions implicated in social cognition. Results from graph analyses confirmed that frequency-dependent alterations of network topologies exist at both global and local levels. We present the first source-space investigation of oscillatory phase synchrony in resting-state MEG in ASD. This work provides evidence of atypical connectivity at physiologically relevant time scales and indicates that alterations of functional connectivity in adolescents with ASD are frequency dependent and region dependent.
| S-EPMC6868964 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Multiple eye-tracking studies have highlighted the "atypical" nature of social attention in autism. However, it is unclear how "atypical" or "typical" should be quantified.We developed a method for identifying moments when members of a group looked at similar places (High-Cohesion Time Frames; HCTFs). We defined typicality as the proximity of gaze points to typically developing (TD) gaze points during TD HCTFs. Comparing toddlers with ASD (n?= 112) to developmentally delayed (DD, n?= 36) and TD (n?= 163) toddlers during a video with Dyadic Bid, Sandwich-Making, Joint Attention, and Animated Toys conditions, we examined (a) individual typicality scores, (b) the relationship between typicality and symptom severity, and (c) HCTF distributions associated with each diagnostic group.The ASD group had lower gaze typicality scores compared to the TD and DD groups in the Dyadic Bid and Sandwich-Making conditions but not during Animated Toys. The DD and TD groups did not differ in any condition. Correlational analyses indicated that higher typicality scores were associated with increased looking at pre-planned locations of the scene indexed by each experimental condition. In the ASD group, lower gaze typicality was associated with more severe autism symptoms. Examining ASD HCTFs, the gaze of toddlers with ASD was least cohesive during Dyadic Bid and most cohesive during Animated Toys.In contrast to non-ASD groups, toddlers with ASD show high cohesion during salient nonsocial events, suggesting that consistency in looking strategies may depend more on perceptual features. These findings are consequential for understanding individual differences in visual attention in ASD and for the design of more sensitive biomarker tasks for stratification, between-group differentiation, and measuring response to treatment.
| S-EPMC5894192 | biostudies-other
Project description:The current state of computer vision methods applied to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research has not been well established. Increasing evidence suggests that computer vision techniques have a strong impact on autism research. The primary objective of this systematic review is to examine how computer vision analysis has been useful in ASD diagnosis, therapy and autism research in general. A systematic review of publications indexed on PubMed, IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library was conducted from 2009 to 2019. Search terms included ['autis*' AND ('computer vision' OR 'behavio* imaging' OR 'behavio* analysis' OR 'affective computing')]. Results are reported according to PRISMA statement. A total of 94 studies are included in the analysis. Eligible papers are categorised based on the potential biological/behavioural markers quantified in each study. Then, different computer vision approaches that were employed in the included papers are described. Different publicly available datasets are also reviewed in order to rapidly familiarise researchers with datasets applicable to their field and to accelerate both new behavioural and technological work on autism research. Finally, future research directions are outlined. The findings in this review suggest that computer vision analysis is useful for the quantification of behavioural/biological markers which can further lead to a more objective analysis in autism research.
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Project description:Social animals, including humans, structure social groups where social hierarchy exists. Recognizing social rank of other group members is a crucial ability to subsist in such environments. Here we show preliminary evidence with a relatively small number of samples that children with autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder involving social dysfunction, exhibit atypical, and more robust recognition of social rank than normal children, which may be developed to compensate deficits of the neural systems processing social information.
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Project description:Vocabulary is a domain of particular challenge for many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent research has drawn attention to ways in which lexical characteristics relate to vocabulary acquisition. The current study tested the hypothesis that lexical characteristics account for variability in vocabulary size of young children with ASD, applying the extended statistical learning theory of vocabulary delay in late talkers (Stokes, Kern, & Dos Santos, 2012) to toddlers with ASD.Parents reported the words produced by toddlers with ASD (n = 57; age 21-37 months) or toddlers without ASD (n = 41; age 22-26 months) on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. The average phonological neighborhood density, word frequency, and word length of each toddler's lexicon were calculated. These lexical characteristics served as predictors of vocabulary size.Findings differed for toddlers with and without ASD and according to subsamples. Word length was the most consistent predictor of vocabulary size for toddlers with ASD.Distinct relationships between lexical characteristics and vocabulary size were observed for toddlers with and without ASD. Experimental studies on distributional cues to vocabulary acquisition are needed to inform what is known about mechanisms of learning in neurodevelopmental disorders.
| S-EPMC4126844 | biostudies-literature
Project description:One genetic mechanism known to be associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is chromosomal abnormalities. The identification of copy number variants (CNV), i.e., microdeletions and microduplications that are undetectable at the level of traditional cytogenetic analysis, allows the potential association of submicroscopic chromosomal imbalances and human disease.We performed array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) utilizing a 19K whole genome tiling path bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) microarray on 397 unrelated subjects with autism spectrum disorder. Common CNV were excluded using a control group comprised of 372 individuals from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Genetics Initiative Control samples. Confirmation studies were performed on all remaining CNV using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), microsatellite analysis, and/or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.A total of 51 CNV were confirmed in 46 ASD subjects. Three maternal interstitial duplications of 15q11-q13 known to be associated with ASD were identified. The other 48 CNV ranged in size from 189 kilobase (kb) to 5.5 megabase (Mb) and contained from 0 to approximately 40 National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Reference Sequence (RefSeq) genes. Seven CNV were de novo and 44 were inherited.Fifty-one autism-specific CNV were identified in 46 of 397 ASD patients using a 19K BAC microarray for an overall rate of 11.6%. These microdeletions and microduplications cause gene dosage imbalance in 272 genes, many of which could be considered as candidate genes for autism.
| S-EPMC2440346 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Imitation has been considered as one of the precursors for sociocommunicative development. Impairments of imitation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could be indicative of dysfunctional underlying neural processes. Neuroimaging studies have found reduced activation in areas associated with imitation, but a functional connectivity MRI network perspective of these regions in autism is unavailable. Functional and effective connectivity was examined in 14 male participants with ASD and 14 matched typically developing (TD) participants. We analyzed intrinsic, low-frequency blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fluctuations of three regions in literature found to be associated with imitation (inferior frontal gyrus [IFG], inferior parietal lobule [IPL], superior temporal sulcus [STS]). Direct group comparisons did not show significantly reduced functional connectivity within the imitation network in ASD. Conversely, we observed greater connectivity with frontal regions, particularly superior frontal and anterior cingulate gyri, in the ASD compared to TD group. Structural equation modeling of effective connectivity revealed a significantly reduced effect of IPL on IFG together with an increased influence of a region in dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC) on IFG in the ASD group. Our results suggest atypical connectivity of the imitation network with an enhanced role of dPFC, which may relate to behavioral impairments.
| S-EPMC3315839 | biostudies-literature