Exploring the impact of parents' face-mask wearing on dyadic interactions in infants at higher likelihood for autism compared with general population.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, both the public and researchers have raised questions regarding the potential impact of protective face-mask wearing on infants' development. Nevertheless, limited research has tested infants' response to protective face-mask wearing adults in real-life interactions and in neurodiverse populations. In addition, scarce attention was given to changes in interactive behavior of adults wearing a protective face-mask. The aims of the current study were (1) to examine differences in 12-month-old infants' behavioral response to an interactive parent wearing a protective face-mask during face-to-face interaction, (2) to investigate potential differences in infants at higher likelihood for autism (HL-ASD) as compared with general population (GP) counterparts, and (3) to explore significant differences in parents' behaviors while wearing or not wearing a protective face-mask. A total of 50 mother-infant dyads, consisting of 20 HL-ASD infants (siblings of individuals with autism) and 30 GP infants, participated in a 6-min face-to-face interaction. The interaction was videotaped through teleconferencing and comprised three 2-min episodes: (a) no mask, (b) mask, and (c) post-mask. Infants' emotionality and gaze direction, as well as mothers' vocal production and touching behaviors, were coded micro-analytically. Globally, GP infants exhibited more positive emotionality compared with their HL-ASD counterparts. Infants' negative emotionality and gaze avoidance did not differ statistically across episodes. Both groups of infants displayed a significant increase in looking time toward the caregiver during the mask episode. No statistically significant differences emerged in mothers' behaviors. These findings suggest that the use of protective face-masks might not negatively affect core dimensions of caregiver-infant interactions in GP and HL-ASD 12-month-old infants.

EEG Functional Connectivity Analysis for the Study of the Brain Maturation in the First Year of Life.

Brain networks are hypothesized to undergo significant changes over development, particularly during infancy. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate brain maturation in the first year of life in terms of electrophysiological (EEG) functional connectivity (FC). Whole-brain FC metrics (i.e., magnitude-squared coherence, phase lag index, and parameters derived from graph theory) were extracted, for multiple frequency bands, from baseline EEG data recorded from 146 typically developing infants at 6 (T6) and 12 (T12) months of age. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test for significant differences in the computed metrics considering time point and sex as fixed effects. Correlational analyses were performed to ascertain the potential relationship between FC and subjects' cognitive and language level, assessed with the Bayley-III scale at 24 (T24) months of age. The results obtained highlighted an increased FC, for all the analyzed frequency bands, at T12 with respect to T6. Correlational analyses yielded evidence of the relationship between FC metrics at T12 and cognition. Despite some limitations, our study represents one of the first attempts to evaluate brain network evolution during the first year of life while accounting for correspondence between functional maturation and cognitive improvement.

Visual statistical learning in preverbal infants at a higher likelihood of autism and its association with later social communication skills.

Visual statistical Learning (SL) allows infants to extract the statistical relationships embedded in a sequence of elements. SL plays a crucial role in language and communication competencies and has been found to be impacted in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study aims to investigate visual SL in infants at higher likelihood of developing ASD (HL-ASD) and its predictive value on autistic-related traits at 24-36 months. At 6 months of age, SL was tested using a visual habituation task in HL-ASD and neurotypical (NT) infants. All infants were habituated to a visual sequence of shapes containing statistically predictable patterns. In the test phase, infants viewed the statistically structured, familiar sequence in alternation with a novel sequence that did not contain any statistical information. HL-ASD infants were then evaluated at 24-36 months to investigate the associations between visual SL and ASD-related traits. Our results showed that NT infants were able to learn the statistical structure embedded in the visual sequences, while HL-ASD infants showed different learning patterns. A regression analysis revealed that SL ability in 6-month-old HL-ASD infants was related to social communication and interaction abilities at 24-36 months of age. These findings indicate that early differences in learning visual statistical patterns might contribute to later social communication skills.

Differentiating early sensory profiles in toddlers at elevated likelihood of autism and association with later clinical outcome and diagnosis.

LAY ABSTRACT: Early sensory responsiveness may produce cascading effects on later development, but the relation between sensory profiles and autistic diagnosis remains unclear. In a longitudinal sample of toddlers at elevated likelihood for autism, we aimed to characterize sensory subgroups and their association with clinical outcomes later on. Three sensory subgroups were described and early sensory sensitivity plays a significant role in later development and diagnosis. This study supported the importance of examining different levels of sensory patterns to dissect the phenotypic heterogeneity in sensory processing. As sensory differences are associated with later developmental outcomes, these results may be critical when designing intervention needs and support for children at increased likelihood for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Baseline EEG in the first year of life: Preliminary insights into the development of autism spectrum disorder and language impairments.

Early identification of neurodevelopmental disorders is important to ensure a prompt and effective intervention, thus improving the later outcome. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and language learning impairment (LLI) are among the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, and they share overlapping symptoms. This study aims to characterize baseline electroencephalography (EEG) spectral power in 6- and 12-month-old infants at higher likelihood of developing ASD and LLI, compared to typically developing infants, and to preliminarily verify if spectral power components associated with the risk status are also linked with the later ASD or LLI diagnosis. We found risk status for ASD to be associated with reduced power in the low-frequency bands and risk status for LLI with increased power in the high-frequency bands. Interestingly, later diagnosis shared similar associations, thus supporting the potential role of EEG spectral power as a biomarker useful for understanding pathophysiology and classifying diagnostic outcomes.

Atypical ERP responses to audiovisual speech integration and sensory responsiveness in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder.

Atypical sensory responses are included in the diagnostic criteria of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autistic individuals perform poorly during conditions that require integration across multiple sensory modalities such as audiovisual (AV) integration. Previous research investigated neural processing of AV integration in infancy. Yet, this has never been studied in infants at higher likelihood of later ASD (HR) using neurophysiological (EEG/ERP) techniques. In this study, we investigated whether ERP measures of AV integration differentiate HR infants from low-risk (LR) infants and whether early AV integration abilities are associated with clinical measures of sensory responsiveness. At age 12 months, AV integration in HR (n = 21) and LR infants (n = 19) was characterized in a novel ERP paradigm measuring the McGurk effect, and clinical measures of sensory responsiveness were evaluated. Different brain responses over the left temporal area emerge between HR and LR infants, specifically when AV stimuli cannot be integrated into a fusible percept. Furthermore, ERP responses related to integration of AV incongruent stimuli were found to be associated with sensory responsiveness, with reduced effects of AV incongruency being associated with reduced sensory reactivity. These data suggest that early identification of AV deficits may pave the way to innovative therapeutic strategies for the autistic symptomatology. Further replications in independent cohorts are needed for generalizability of findings.

A Pilot Study Evaluating the Effects of Early Intervention for Italian Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a high-cost/high-burden problem. Early intervention may prevent development of the disorder, improving child outcomes and reducing long-term consequences. However, few studies have investigated the role of early intervention in children younger than two years. This study aims to examine the effect of early intervention in 18-month-old high-risk siblings of children with ASD (HR-ASD) with clinical signs of autism. The intervention is based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and focuses on the development of early precursors to social and communicative competence (joint attention and imitation behaviors). After controlling for baseline differences, two comparison HR-ASD groups were included: 15 HR-ASD toddlers receiving behavioral intervention for 3 h per week for 5 months (INT+) and 15 HR-ASD toddlers who were only clinically monitored from age 18 months (INT-). Changes in social communication, restricted/repetitive behaviors, and language were assessed using standardized measures at pre- (T0) and post-intervention (T1). From T0 to T1, the INT+ group showed significant improvements in communication, social interaction, and language compared to INT- group. There was no effect on restricted/repetitive behaviors. Our findings highlighted the importance of early detection/intervention in autism and supported a positive impact of targeted interventions to improve outcomes in at-risk children.

Detection without further processing or processing without automatic detection? Differential ERP responses to lexical-semantic processing in toddlers at high clinical risk for autism and language disorder.

Delays in early expressive vocabulary can reflect a specific delay in language acquisition or more general impairments in social communication. The neural mechanisms underlying the (dis)ability to establish the first lexical-semantic representations remain relatively unknown. Here, we investigate the electrophysiological underpinnings of these mechanisms during the critical phase of lexical acquisition in two groups of 19-month-old toddlers at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, i.e., children characterized by low expressive vocabulary (late talkers, N = 18) and children with early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, N = 18) as compared to typically developing children (N = 28), with the aim to identify similarities and specificities in lexical-semantic processing between these groups. ERPs elicited by words (either congruous or incongruous with the previous picture context) and pseudo-words are investigated within a picture-word matching paradigm. In order to further interpret ERP responses, we look at longitudinal intra-group associations with language and socio-communications skills at age 24 months. As expected, we found differences between the groups that might underlie specificities, but also similarities. On the one side, late talkers differed from the other two groups in the early component (phonological-lexical priming effect) reflecting detection of the correspondence between the heard word and the lexical representation pre-activated by the picture. On the other side, children with early symptoms of ASD differed from the other two groups in the late component (late positive component) reflecting the effortful semantic re-analysis following a violation. The functional interpretation of the two components is corroborated by significant correlations suggesting that the early component is associated with later socio-communication skills, whereas the late component is associated with linguistic skills. Results point in the direction of differential impaired mechanisms in the two populations, i.e., impaired automatic detection of incongruencies in late talkers vs. absence of high-level re-analysis of such incongruencies in children with early signs of ASD.

Dysfunctions in Infants' Statistical Learning are Related to Parental Autistic Traits.

Statistical learning refers to the ability to extract the statistical relations embedded in a sequence, and it plays a crucial role in the development of communicative and social skills that are impacted in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Here, we investigated the relationship between infants' SL ability and autistic traits in their parents. Using a visual habituation task, we tested infant offspring of adults (non-diagnosed) who show high (HAT infants) versus low (LAT infants) autistic traits. Results demonstrated that LAT infants learned the statistical structure embedded in a visual sequence, while HAT infants failed. Moreover, infants' SL ability was related to autistic traits in their parents, further suggesting that early dysfunctions in SL might contribute to variabilities in ASD symptoms.