Towards-Person Vocalization Effect on Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Context of Frustration.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the vocalization characteristics of infants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the context of frustration. The duration and frequency of vocalization in 48 infants with ASD and 65 infants with typical development (TD) were followed up to 24 months later for subsequent diagnosis. The typical vocalizations of infants with ASD were retrospectively analyzed, such as speech-like vocalizations, nonspeech vocalizations, vocalizations towards the person and non-social vocalizations. The results showed that, compared with the TD group, vocalizations of infants with ASD during the still-face period had lower typical vocalizations and characteristics associated with social intention, and that these characteristics were closely related to the clinical symptoms of ASD, among which vocalizations towards the person accompanied by social intention had discriminative efficacy.

The characteristics and factors of the internalizing and externalizing behaviours of children at high risk for autism spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND: The behavioral characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not only affected by their disease, but also by their parenting environment. HR-ASD has the risk of developing internalization and externalization problems. How the early development of these behavioral problems is affected by parent-child interaction is worth exploring. We tested whether parent-child interactions and parenting characteristics were associated with behavioural problems during the infant periods. METHODS: This study collected data from 91 infants at high risk for ASD and 68 matched typically developing (TD) infants, about their internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems and engagement states (i.e. positive, negative, and parent-child interactions), using free play paradigm. Parent measures were assessed using the Broad Autism Phenotypic Questionnaire (BAPQ) and Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF) questionnaire. The core symptoms of ASD were assessed using the the Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS). RESULTS: During free play, infants in the HR-ASD group showed more internalizing (P < 0.001) and externalizing (P < 0.05) behaviours and less positive engagement (P < 0.01) than the TD group. In the regression analysis, we found that parenting stress had an impact on the infants' externalizing behaviours (△R2 = 0.215). Parent negative engagement had an impact on the infants' internalizing behaviours (△R2 = 0.451). CONCLUSIONS: The present study revealed that children at high risk for ASD exhibited more severe internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems than TD group. The parent negative engagement is associated with behavioural problems. The findings on the contribution of parents' factors to behavioural problems suggests that the parenting stress and parent-child interactions are important factors for mitigating behavioural problems.

Identification and Characterization of Glucosyltransferase That Forms 1-Galloyl-ß-d-Glucogallin in Canarium album L., a Functional Fruit Rich in Hydrolysable Tannins.

Hydrolysable tannins (HTs) are useful secondary metabolites that are responsible for pharmacological activities and astringent taste, flavor, and quality in fruits. They are also the main polyphenols in Canarium album L. (Chinese olive) fruit, an interesting and functional fruit that has been cultivated for over 2000 years. The HT content of C. album fruit was 2.3-13 times higher than that of berries with a higher content of HT. 1-galloyl-ß-d-glucose (ßG) is the first intermediate and the key metabolite in the HT biosynthesis pathway. It is catalyzed by UDP-glucosyltransferases (UGTs), which are responsible for the glycosylation of gallic acid (GA) to form ßG. Here, we first reported 140 UGTs in C. album. Phylogenetic analysis clustered them into 14 phylogenetic groups (A, B, D-M, P, and Q), which are different from the 14 typical major groups (A~N) of Arabidopsis thaliana. Expression pattern and correlation analysis showed that UGT84A77 (Isoform0117852) was highly expressed and had a positive correlation with GA and ßG content. Prokaryotic expression showed that UGT84A77 could catalyze GA to form ßG. These results provide a theoretical basis on UGTs in C. album, which will be helpful for further functional research and availability on HTs and polyphenols.

Predictors of Change in Play-Based Communication and Behavior Intervention for High-Risk ASD: The Role of Mother-Child Dyadic Synchrony.

Background: Interindividual variability is important in the evolution of adaptative profiles of children with ASD having benefited from an early intervention make up for deficits in communication, language and social interactions. Therefore, this paper aimed to determine the nature of factors influencing the efficacy variability of a particular intervention technique i.e., "Play-based communication and behavior intervention" (PCBI). Methods: The participants comprised 70 13-30-month-old toddlers with ASD enrolled in PCBI for 12 weeks. The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) was used to evaluate the efficacy of PCBI. Video recordings of 5 min of free-play before and after PCBI were used to examine behaviors of mothers and children and parent-child dyadic synchrony. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses and machine learning algorithms were performed to explore the effect of these potential predictors (mothers' factors, children's factors and videotaped mother-child interaction) of intervention efficacy. Results: The hierarchical regression analysis and the machine learning algorithms indicated that parenting stress, level of completion of training at home and mother-child dyadic synchrony were crucial factors in predicting and monitoring the efficacy of PCBI. Conclusions: In summary, the findings suggest that PCBI could be particularly beneficial to children with ASD who show a good performance in the mother-child dyadic synchrony evaluation. A better dyadic mother-child synchrony could enhance the PCBI efficacy through adapted emotional and behavioral responses of the mother and the child and has a beneficial influence on the child's psychological development.

Automatic Identification of High-Risk Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study Using Video and Audio Data Under the Still-Face Paradigm.

It is reported that the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could be improved by effective early interventions, which arouses an urgent need for large-scale early identification of ASD. Until now, the screening of ASD has relied on the child psychiatrist to collect medical history and conduct behavioral observations with the help of psychological assessment tools. Such screening measures inevitably have some disadvantages, including strong subjectivity, relying on experts and low-efficiency. With the development of computer science, it is possible to realize a computer-aided screening for ASD and alleviate the disadvantages of manual evaluation. In this study, we propose a behavior-based automated screening method to identify high-risk ASD (HR-ASD) for babies aged 8-24 months. The still-face paradigm (SFP) was used to elicit baby's spontaneous social behavior through a face-to-face interaction, in which a mother was required to maintain a normal interaction to amuse her baby for 2 minutes (a baseline episode) and then suddenly change to the no-reaction and no-expression status with 1 minute (a still-face episode). Here, multiple cues derived from baby's social stress response behavior during the latter episode, including head-movements, facial expressions and vocal characteristics, were statistically analyzed between HR-ASD and typical developmental (TD) groups. An automated identification model of HR-ASD was constructed based on these multi-cue features and the support vector machine (SVM) classifier; moreover, its screening performance was satisfied, for all the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity exceeded 90% on the cases included in this study. The experimental results suggest its feasibility in the early screening of HR-ASD.

Application of the Still-Face Paradigm in Early Screening for High-Risk Autism Spectrum Disorder in Infants and Toddlers.

Background: Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can currently be diagnosed at the age of 2 years, age at ASD diagnosis is still 40 months or even later. In order to early screening for ASD with more objective method, behavioral videos were used in a number of studies in recent years. Method: The still-face paradigm (SFP) was adopted to measure the frequency and duration of non-social smiling, protest behavior, eye contact, social smiling, and active social engagement in high-risk ASD group (HR) and typical development group (TD) (HR: n = 45; TD: n = 43). The HR group was follow-up until they were 2 years old to confirm final diagnosis. Machine learning methods were used to establish models for early screening of ASD. Results: During the face-to-face interaction (FF) episode of the SFP, there were statistically significant differences in the duration and frequency of eye contact, social smiling, and active social engagement between the two groups. During the still-face (SF) episode, there were statistically significant differences in the duration and frequency of eye contact and active social engagement between the two groups. The 45 children in the HR group were reclassified into two groups after follow-up: five children in the N-ASD group who were not meet the criterion of ASD and 40 children in the ASD group. The results showed that the accuracy of Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification was 83.35% for the SF episode. Conclusion: The use of the social behavior indicator of the SFP for a child with HR before 2 years old can effectively predict the clinical diagnosis of the child at the age of 2 years. The screening model constructed using SVM based on the SF episode of the SFP was the best. This also proves that the SFP has certain value in high-risk autism spectrum disorder screening. In addition, because of its convenient, it can provide a self-screening mode for use at home. Trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-OPC-17011995.

[Characteristics of vocalization in children with autism spectrum disorder during the still-face paradigm].

OBJECTIVE: To study the characteristics of vocalization during the still-face paradigm (SFP) before the age of 2 years and their correlation with the severity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms at diagnosis in children with ASD. METHODS: A total of 43 children aged 7-23 months, who were suspected of ASD, were enrolled as the suspected ASD group, and 37 typical development (TD) children, aged 7-23 months, were enrolled as the TD group. The frequency and durations of vocalization in the SFP were measured. The children in the suspected ASD group were followed up to the age of 2 years, and 34 children were diagnosed with ASD. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) was used to assess the severity of symptoms. The correlation of the characteristics of vocalization before the age of 2 years with the severity of ASD symptoms was analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the TD group, the ASD group had significant reductions in the frequency and durations of meaningful vocalization and vocalization towards people and a significant increase in the duration of vocalization toward objects (P<0.05). The Spearman correlation analysis showed that in the ASD group, the frequency and durations of total vocalization, non-speech vocalization, babbling, vocalization towards people, and vocalization towards objects were negatively correlated with the score of communication in ADOS (P<0.05). The frequency and durations of total vocalization, babbling, and vocalization towards people and the duration of vocalization towards objects were negatively correlated with the score of reciprocal social interaction in ADOS (P<0.05). The frequency of total vocalization, the duration of babbling, and the frequency and duration of vocalization towards people were negatively correlated with the score of play in ADOS (P<0.05). The frequency of total vocalization and non-speech vocalization and the frequency and durations of vocalization towards people were negatively correlated with the score of stereotyped behaviors and restricted interests in ADOS (P<0.05). The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the frequency of total vocalization was a negative predictive factor for the score of communication in ADOS (P<0.001), and the duration of vocalization towards people was a negative predictive factor for the score of reciprocal social interaction in ADOS (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: SFP can better highlight the abnormal vocalization of ASD children before the age of 2 years, and such abnormalities can predict the severity of ASD symptoms early.

The fair decision-making of children and adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder from the perspective of dual-process theories.

BACKGROUND: Fairness has received much attention in our society. At present, the findings regarding fair decision-making in high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) are inconsistent. Previous studies have shown that the fair decision-making of typically developing children is influenced by theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF). As those with HF-ASD have defects in both domains, this study aims to explore the differences in fair decision-making between children and adolescents with HF-ASD and those with typical development (TD). METHODS: We used a simple ultimatum game (UG) to explore 31 children and adolescents with HF-ASD and 38 children and adolescents with TD. T tests and chi-square tests were used to compare group differences, and Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were used to analyse the mechanisms influencing the two groups' unfair acceptance rates. RESULTS: The results show that children with HF-ASD are more likely to accept unfair offers, but for adolescents, the difference is not significant. Regression analysis showed that the interaction between the behavior regulation index (BRI) and age could negatively predict the unfair acceptance rate of children and adolescents with HF-ASD. Working memory and ToM can negatively predict the unfair acceptance rate of those with TD. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that the development of fair decision-making by children and adolescents with HF-ASD falls far behind that of those with TD. Intuition processes play a dominant role in the fair decision-making processes of children and adolescents with HF-ASD, and we believe that comorbidity, age, experience and emotional management are important factors influencing the fair decision-making of individuals with HF-ASD.

Exploring the relationship between fairness and 'brain types' in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND: Existing research typically focuses on only one domain of cognition with regard to fairness-theory of mind or executive function. However, children with High-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) are cognitively impaired in both domains. Moreover, little is known about fairness characteristics in children with HF-ASD in relation to both domains of cognition. METHODS: Thirty children with HF-ASD as well as 39 children with typical development (TD) were evaluated in this study. We investigated the development of children's fairness characteristics as a responder in a mini ultimatum game (UG). The different 'brain types,' i.e., with or without HF-ASD, were evaluated using the Empathy Questionnaire-Systemizing Questionnaire (E/SC-Q). Furthermore, we explored the relationship between fairness and brain types using Pearson correlation analyses. RESULTS: Children in the HF-ASD group were more likely to accept unfair offers than were children in the TD group (χ2 = 17.513, p = .025). In the HF-ASD group, the acceptance rate of unfair offers was correlated with the discrepancy score (r = 0.363, p = .048), while there were no significant correlations in the TD group. In HF-ASD group, compared with Type S, acceptance rate of unfair offer was significant higher in Extreme Type S 'brain type' (F = 28.584, p < .001). While dividing TD participants by 'brain type', there was no significant difference in acceptance rate of unfair offer among five difference 'brain types' (F = 1.131, p = .358). Stepwise regression revealed that Extreme Type S positively predicted acceptance of unfair offers (F [1, 68] = 8.695, p < .001). DISCUSSION: Our findings show that children with HF-ASD were more likely to accept an unfair offer; in particular, the more unbalanced the development of empathy and systemizing was, the more significant the unfairness preference observed. Extreme Type S positively predicted the acceptance of unfair offers by children with HF-ASD. REGISTRATION OF CLINICAL TRIALS: World Health Organization class I registered international clinical trial platform, ChiCTR-ROC-17012877.