Some of our Research Findings!
Cortical markers of excitation/inhibition balance are associated with sensory responsivity from infancy in longitudinal cohorts enriched for autism and ADHD (2024)​
Background:
Those with autism and ADHD tend to respond to their sensory signals differently to those who are typically developed. A possible reason for this is that there is a disparity in the brain's ability to balance between the signals that indicate excitement and calm.
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​Aims:
To understand if there are early sensory markers of autism and ADHD.
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Method:
116 infants took part in the STAARS study at 5, 10, 14, 24, and 36 months of age.
Participants completed an electroencephalogram (EEG) task to measure brain signals in response to sensory inputs.
Sensory responsivity and neurodevelopmental traits were also measured with questionnaires. ​
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Findings:
Babies who had difficulty balancing between their excited and calm brain signals were more sensitive to sensory inputs (e.g. light, sound) and are thus more likely to develop autism and/or ADHD.
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Implications:
Early intervention can be in place for babies who present with these early signs, therefore, allowing them to be best supported in school and at home.
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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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Infant sleep predicts trajectories of social attention and later autism traits (2023)
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Jannath Begum-Ali, Louisa K. Gossé, Luke Mason, Greg Pasco, Tony Charman, Mark H. Johnson, Emily J.H. Jones, The STAARS Team
Background:
Children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience sleep disturbances.
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Aims:
To investigate when sleep difficulties in autism and ADHD emerge and how they relate to later development.
Methods:
​164 infants took part in the STAARS study at 5, 10, 14 and 3 years old.
Parents completed questionnaires to report their child's sleep difficulties.
An eye tracking task measured participant's attention to visual stimuli.
Multiple questionnaires were used to measure developmental outcome at 3 years.
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Results:
In the first 2 years of life, infants with a family history of autism (but not ADHD) demonstrated reduced sleep factor scores. This included shorter sleep durations, increased night waking and more difficult settlings.
By 14 months, lower Night Sleep scores related to weaker cognitive skills, social adaptive functioning and greater autistic traits in toddlerhood.
Sleep in early infancy also predicted changes in social attention (e.g., looking time at faces).
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Implications:
Sleep may be a viable target for early intervention in infants with a family history of autism, particularly around the age of 14-months.
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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)
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Anna De Laet, Elena Serena Piccardi, Jannath Begum-Ali , Tony Charman, Mark H Johnson, Emily J H Jones, Rachael Bedford, Teodora Gliga; STAARS Team
Background:
Sleep difficulties are highly prevalent in autistic individuals. We focused on the potential impact of sensory dysregulation and atypical gating of sensory input on sleep difficulties in this population.
What is Sensory Gating?
It wouldn't be useful for the brain to respond to every sensory thing in the environment, so it filters out irrelevant stimuli and reduces its processing of repeated stimuli. ​Infants at elevated likelihood of autism do not show this regular suppression to repeated sensory stimulation. This may be related to difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep.
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Aims:
1. Characterise the onset of sleep atypicality in infants at elevated likelihood of autism.
2. Test whether an EEG (Electroencephalography) marker of tactile repetition suppression is associated with individual variation in sleep trajectories in infants at elevated likelihood for autism.
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Methods:
124 infants took part in the STAARS study between 2013-2019 at 4, 10 and 14 months. ​
Parents filled out a Sleep and Settle Questionnaire to report on their children's sleeping patterns.
Infants completed an EEG task. They wore an EEG net which measures electrical signals produced by the brain. Voice coil tactors were attached to the bare soles of each foot of the infant. Vibrotactile stimuli were delivered to both feet simultaneously.
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Results:
Infants at an elevated likelihood for autism took longer to fall asleep and had significantly more night awakenings at 10 and 14 months.
At 10 months, infants with poor sensory gating of the tactile simulation on their feet took significantly longer to fall asleep.
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This finding was independent of ASD likelihood.
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Therefore, in all participants, the diminished neurological ability to suppress repeated tactile stimuli was associated with prolonged sleep onset.
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This is important as infants will experience continuous tactile input when trying to sleep such as moving around in bed. The diminished ability to suppress this repeated sensory input will therefore play a role in sleep difficulties. ​
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Implications:
Since both sensory atypicality’s and sleep disturbances are common in the early development of ASD, early interventions focused on reducing sensory input have the potential to alleviate sleep difficulties, with positive effects on cognitive development and wellbeing.
Behavioural Measures of Infant Activity but Not Attention Associate with Later Preschool ADHD Traits (2021)
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Background:
Mapping infant neurocognitive differences that precede later ADHD-related behaviours is critical for designing early interventions.
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Aims:
1) To measure group differences in several measures of attention and activity levels in infants with and without family history of ADHD.
2) To measure longitudinal associations between the infant measures and preschool ADHD traits at 3 years.
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Methods:
51 infants with or without an elevated likelihood for ADHD (due to a family history of ADHD and/or ASD) took part in the STAARS study.
Several measures were used to assess infant attention and activity levels at 10 months, including:
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Parent Reports and Observer Reports (based on lab visit) of activity and attention
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Physiological measures of heart rate during toy play and head motion during eye tracking to measure attentiveness to screen.
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Neural measures of brain activity whilst participants watched stimulus on a screen.
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Behavioural measures of infant's attention during toy playing.
At 3 years, parents completed questionnaires to measure preschool ADHD traits.
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Results:
Parent and observer ratings of infant activity level at 10 months were positively associated with later preschool ADHD traits at 3 years.
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Implications:
Observable behavioural differences in activity level (but not attention) may be apparent from infancy in children who later develop elevated preschool ADHD traits. Specifically, heightened activity levels may be a precursor of later ADHD traits.
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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
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Background:
Temperament is a person's stable personality traits that are influenced by genetics, biology, and environment. These traits, like activity level and emotional response, can be linked to brain function and measured early in life.
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Aims:
To investigate temperament as an early risk marker for autism.
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Methods:
​247 infants (170 with high-risk of autism and 77 low-risk) were assessed at four time points during their first 3 years of life.
Parents completed questionnaires to measure their children's temperament at 8 months, 14 months and 24 months.
At 36 months, various clinical measures were used to characterise the outcome of infants with elevated likelihood of autism e.g., the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Autism Diagnostic Interview.
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Results:
​Findings showed that high-risk infants with or without subsequent ASD diagnosis could be distinguished from low-risk controls based on higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of effortful control. Effortful control is the ability to regulate one's behavior, emotions, and thoughts.
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Implications:
Differences in temperament e.g., negative affect and lower effortful control could be signs that might help predict autism later on.
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Temperament as an Early Risk Marker for Autism Spectrum Disorders? A Longitudinal Study of High-Risk and Low-Risk Infants (2019)​
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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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Background:
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.
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Aims:
To investigate how early visual search abilities links to later ASD diagnosis and the potential underlying mechanisms of this association.
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Methods:
143 infants (116 with high-risk of autism and 27 with low-risk) were assessed at four time points during their first 3 years of life.
At 9 months, 15 months and 2 years, participants completed a visual search task, where researchers measured how long it took for participant's to find a hidden object among other object, and how times they looked at the wrong objects.
​At 36 months, various clinical measures were used to characterise the outcome of infants with elevated likelihood of autism e.g., the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Autism Diagnostic Interview. Core symptoms such as social interaction and communication were also measured.
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Results:
​At 9 and 15 months, but not at age 2 years, high-risk children who later met clinical criteria for autism had better visual search performance than those without later diagnosis and low-risk controls.
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Implications:
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)​
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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