Study Abstracts
Cortical markers of excitation/inhibition balance are associated with sensory responsivity from infancy in longitudinal cohorts enriched for autism and ADHD (2024)
Virginia Carter Leno, Jannath Begum Ali, Amy Goodwin, Luke Mason, Greg Pasco, Nisha Narvekar, Andrew Pickles, Tony Charman, Mark Johnson, Emily Jones, The STAARS Team
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Autism and ADHD are characterised by atypical sensory responsivity, and this may be driven by alterations in the balance of cortical excitation to inhibition (E/I). Studies in early development are required to establish the primary of effects. We utilised data from a prospective longitudinal cohort of infants with and without a family history (FH) of autism and/or ADHD (N=151; 55% male, 83% white). We extracted electroencephalography (EEG) metrics of E/I balance at 5, 10 and 14 months; the aperiodic exponent of the slope of the power spectrum (‘1/f’). Models estimated correlated latent growth curves of parent-reported hyper and hypo-responsivity between 10 – 36 months. Analyses tested associations between developmental trajectories of sensory responsivity and FH, parent-rated neurodevelopmental traits at 3 years and E/I balance. Results showed that FH-autism was associated with steeper increases in parent-reported hyper-responsivity between 10 to 36 months, whereas FH-ADHD was associated with steeper increases in hypo-responsivity. Higher hypo-responsivity at 10-month baseline was associated with both autistic and ADHD traits at 3 years. A steeper slope of hypo-responsivity predicted ADHD traits at 3 years. Neither the baseline or slope of hyper-responsivity was associated with FH-ADHD, or autistic or ADHD traits at 3 years. Males displayed higher baseline hypo-responsivity. Aperiodic exponent values at 5 and 10, but not 14 months, were associated with hyper-responsivity. Results suggest that hypo-responsivity in infancy may be an indicator of later autism and ADHD outcomes. Alterations in E/I balance may contribute to early differences in sensory responsivity and thus could represent a useful target for intervention development.
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Infant sleep predicts trajectories of social attention and later autism traits (2023)
Jannath Begum-Ali, Louisa K. Gossé, Luke Mason, Greg Pasco, Tony Charman, Mark H. Johnson, Emily J.H. Jones, The STAARS Team
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Background: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience sleep disturbances, but little is known about when these sleep differences emerge and how they relate to later development.
Methods: We used a prospective longitudinal design in infants with a family history of ASD and/or ADHD to examine infant sleep and its relation to trajectories of attention and later neurodevelopmental disorders. We formed factors of Day and Night Sleep from parent-reported measures (including day/night sleep duration, number of naps in the day, frequency of night awakenings and sleep onset problems). We examined sleep in 164 infants at 5-, 10- and 14-months with/without a first-degree relative with ASD and/or ADHD who underwent a consensus clinical assessment for ASD at age 3.
Results: By 14-months, infants with a first-degree relative with ASD (but not ADHD) showed lower Night Sleep scores than infants with no family history of ASD; lower Night Sleep scores in infancy were also associated with a later ASD diagnosis, decreased cognitive ability, increased ASD symptomatology at 3-years, and developing social attention (e.g., looking to faces). We found no such effects with Day Sleep.
Conclusions: Sleep disturbances may be apparent at night from 14-months in infants with a family history of ASD and also those with later ASD, but were not associated with a family history of ADHD. Infant sleep disturbances were also linked to later dimensional variation in cognitive and social skills across the cohort. Night Sleep and Social Attention were interrelated over the first 2 years of life, suggesting that this may be one mechanism through which sleep quality influences neurodevelopment. Interventions targeted towards supporting families with their infant's sleep problems may be useful in this population.
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Neuronal gating of tactile input and sleep in 10-month old infants at typical and elevated likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder (2022)
Anna De Laet, Elena Serena Piccardi, Jannath Begum-Ali , Tony Charman, Mark H Johnson, Emily J H Jones, Rachael Bedford, Teodora Gliga; STAARS Team
Sleep problems in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) emerge early in development, yet the origin remains unclear. Here, we characterise developmental trajectories in sleep onset latency (SOL) and night awakenings in infants at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (who have an older sibling with ASD) and infants at typical likelihood (TL) for ASD. Further, we test whether the ability to gate tactile input, using an EEG tactile suppression index (TSI), associates with variation in SOL and night awakenings. Parent-reported night awakenings and SOL from 124 infants (97 at EL for ASD) at 5, 10 and 14 months were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. Compared to TL infants, infants at EL had significantly more awakenings and longer SOL at 10 and 14 months. The TSI predicted SOL concurrently at 10 months, independent of ASD likelihood status, but not longitudinally at 14 months. The TSI did not predict night awakenings concurrently or longitudinally. These results imply that infants at EL for ASD wake up more frequently during the night and take longer to fall asleep from 10 months of age. At 10 months, sensory gating predicts SOL, but not night awakenings, suggesting sensory gating differentially affects neural mechanisms of sleep initiation and maintenance.
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Behavioural Measures of Infant Activity but Not Attention Associate with Later Preschool ADHD Traits (2021)
Amy Goodwin, Alexandra Hendry, Luke Mason, Tessel Bazelmans, Jannath Begum Ali, Greg Pasco, Tony Charman, Emily J. H. Jones, Mark H. Johnson and The BASIS/STAARS Team
Mapping infant neurocognitive differences that precede later ADHD-related behaviours is critical for designing early interventions. In this study, we investigated (1) group differences in a battery of measures assessing aspects of attention and activity level in infants with and without a family history of ADHD or related conditions (ASD), and (2) longitudinal associations between the infant measures and preschool ADHD traits at 3 years. Participants (N = 151) were infants with or without an elevated likelihood for ADHD (due to a family history of ADHD and/or ASD). A multi-method assessment protocol was used to assess infant attention and activity level at 10 months of age that included behavioural, cognitive, physiological and neural measures. Preschool ADHD traits were measured at 3 years of age using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Child Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ). Across a broad range of measures, we found no significant group differences in attention or activity level at 10 months between infants with and without a family history of ADHD or ASD. However, parent and observer ratings of infant activity level at 10 months were positively associated with later preschool ADHD traits at 3 years. Observable behavioural differences in activity level (but not attention) may be apparent from infancy in children who later develop elevated preschool ADHD traits.
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To investigate temperament as an early risk marker for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we examined parent-reported temperament for high-risk (HR, n = 170) and low-risk (LR, n = 77) siblings at 8, 14, and 24 months. Diagnostic assessment was performed at 36 months. Group-based analyses showed linear risk gradients, with more atypical temperament for HR-ASD, followed by HR-Atypical, HR-Typical, and LR siblings. Temperament differed significantly between outcome groups (0.03 ≤ ηp2 ≤ 0.34). Machine learning analyses showed that, at an individual level, HR-ASD siblings could not be identified accurately, whereas HR infants without ASD could. Our results emphasize the discrepancy between group-based and individual-based predictions and suggest that while temperament does not facilitate early identification of ASD individually, it may help identify HR infants who do not develop ASD.
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Temperament as an Early Risk Marker for Autism Spectrum Disorders? A Longitudinal Study of High-Risk and Low-Risk Infants​
M. K. J. Pijl, G. Bussu, T. Charman, M. H. Johnson, E. J. H. Jones, G. Pasco, I. J. Oosterling, N. N. J. Rommelse, J. K. Buitelaar & The BASIS Team
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An enhanced ability to detect visual targets amongst distractors, known as visual search (VS), has often been documented in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Yet, it is unclear when this behaviour emerges in development and if it is specific to ASD. We followed up infants at high and low familial risk for ASD to investigate how early VS abilities links to later ASD diagnosis, the potential underlying mechanisms of this association and the specificity of superior VS to ASD. Clinical diagnosis of ASD as well as dimensional measures of ASD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety symptoms were ascertained at 3 years. At 9 and 15 months, but not at age 2 years, high-risk children who later met clinical criteria for ASD (HR-ASD) had better VS performance than those without later diagnosis and low-risk controls. Although HR-ASD children were also more attentive to the task at 9 months, this did not explain search performance. Superior VS specifically predicted 3 year-old ASD but not ADHD or anxiety symptoms. Our results demonstrate that atypical perception and core ASD symptoms of social interaction and communication are closely and selectively associated during early development, and suggest causal links between perceptual and social features of ASD.
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Visual search performance in infants associates with later ASD diagnosis (2018)​
M. K. J. Pijl, G. Bussu, T. Charman, M. H. Johnson, E. J. H. Jones, G. Pasco, I. J. Oosterling, N. N. J. Rommelse, J. K. Buitelaar & The BASIS Team
