Principal Investigator(s):  Thomas F. Anders, M.D. and Beth Goodlin-Jones, Ph.D.

Children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders are known to have significant sleep problems. However, less is known about the kind of sleep problem, the severity of the problem and the continuity of the problem over time. This study uses actigraphy and videosomnography in the child's home to study the kinds of sleep disorders with which children with autism present. Two comparison groups (typically developing children and children with developmental delay but without autism) are matched in chronological age and developmental level, and contrasted to a group of children with autism. Each group of 60 children is studied on three occasions of one week's duration over a six month period. In addition daytime measures of sleepiness and attention are obtained on each occasion. This study will attempt to define the types of sleep disorders present in these children and determine whether any of the sleep disorders are specific to diagnosis. Moreover, the study will assess whether daytime performance is impacted by night time sleep disruption.

Principal Investigator:  Blythe Corbett, Ph.D.

Converging evidence from neuropathological, neuropsychological, lesion and neuroimaging studies support an important role for the amygdala in the neuropathology of autism. A central hypothesis of this series of studies is that dysregulation of the amygdala may contribute to various impairments in autism including increased response to potentially threatening stimuli, deficits in implicit and explicit emotion perception and limited social cognition. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) permits the in vivo study of underlying brain regions involved in the execution of a cognitive, affective, motor or perceptual task. The goal of this project is to use established fMRI probes of amygdalar function to study the processing of various social and emotional stimuli in children with autism and neurotypical children 8 to 12 years of age.

Principal Investigator:  Blythe A. Corbett, Ph.D.

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment in communication, social interaction, repetitive behaviors and difficulty adapting to novel experiences. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system responds consistently to novel or unfamiliar situations and can serve as an important biomarker of the response to a variety of different stimuli. There is evidence  that regulation of the HPA system may be dysfunctional in children with autism. In order to provide preliminary data concerning HPA regulation and responsiveness our laboratory we compared circadian rhythms and response to a non-social, environmental stressor (mock MRI scanner) in children with and without autism. The children with autism, but not typical children, showed a more variable circadian rhythm as well as statistically significant elevations in cortisol following exposure to a novel, nonsocial stimulus.  The results suggest that children with autism process and respond idiosyncratically to novel and threatening events resulting in an exaggerated cortisol response. Currently, we are conducting a series of studies to evaluate the responsiveness and regulation of the HPA axis in children with and without autism following exposure to a variety of social and nonsocial stimuli and situations. These investigations are funded by the M.I.N.D. Institute Investigator-Initiated Award (2004) and the Department of Psychiatry Tupin Award (2005).

Principal Investigator:  Sally J. Ozonoff, Ph.D.

This study tracks the early development of younger siblings of children with autism, children with other developmental delays, and children with typical development. Through this study, we hope to learn more about the early warning signs of later developmental problems and possible genetic markers for speech and language delay. Studies have indicated a 5-10% risk of having a second child with an autism spectrum disorder, with the risk potentially rising to as high as 35% for a third child. Babies are followed for three to four years and their social, communicative, cognitive, physical, and motor development is studied using a combination of behavioral methods, eye tracking paradigms, and gene assays. Once the participants have passed through the window of risk for the development of autism, we will be able to examine which behaviors differentiate the children who are affected from those who develop typically. The goal of this investigation is to develop a set of behavioral criteria that predict which infants will be later diagnosed with autism. Early recognition and intervention are very important in order to achieve the best long-term outcomes for children with autism.

Principal Investigator:   Sally Rogers, Ph.D.

Children with autism are now being diagnosed as early as 12-18 months of life. We have very little information on how to intervene effectively with children so young. This five year, multisite, randomized controlled study, funded by NIMH and NICHD, will examine the outcomes after 27 months of treatment for 108 children ages 12-24 months at enrollment in three sites: University of Washington, University of Michigan, and UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. Children will be diagnosed at the university clinics and randomized into one of two groups, those who will be referred for the interventions available in their community through public resources, and a specific intervention developed by Sally Rogers and Geraldine Dawson, formerly at the University of Washington. The intervention, called the Early Start Denver Model, uses a play based, relationship based developmental approach in which social, communicative, and play interactions are carried out via naturalistically applied teaching procedures derived from applied behavior analysis, first developed in an intervention known as Pivotal response Training (PRT). This intervention approach thus fuses developmental, relationship, and behavioral approaches into an integrated and developmentally appropriate approach for infants and toddlers. Parents are coached to deliver the intervention, and therapists also visit children in their homes to deliver 20 hours of intervention each week. The main questions of interest involve the efficacy of the intervention approach, and identification of child, family,a nd biological mediators and moderators of treatment effects.

Principal Investigator(s):   Sally Rogers, Ph.D. and David Amaral, Ph.D. 

Autism is a neurobiological disorder that is thought to be due to differences in brain function that occur during prenatal development. However, autism is not usually diagnosed before children are two or three years old.  While parental reports and stuides of early videos document some differences in infants who will later be diagnosed with autism, no studies have thus far been published  that involved prospective information on infants in the first six months of life who alter develop autism. The purpose of this pilot study  is to examine social and motoric behavior of neonatal siblings of children with autism and a comparison group of typically developing neonates across the first 12 months of life. This project will use several new paradigms for assessing infant siblings of children with autism, including neonatal behavioral measures and analysis of gaze patterns during ongoing social interactions at 3 and 6 months. Autism symptoms at 12 months will be assessed and relationships between early social behaviors and autism symptoms at 12 month will be examined.   Participants include 60 infant siblings of children with autism and 60 infant siblings of typically developing children.

Principal Investigator(s):   Sally Rogers, Ph.D.

This five-year multisite award project provides training and technical assistance to states that seek to increase the use of empirically based intervention, educational, and identification practices for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder. States accepted for training receive two years of support from the project to enhance their services to children through the development of state training teams and state demonstration sites with expertise in the use of empirically supported practices. Training and technical assistance involve distance learning technology, state based training conferences, a nd ongoing site based consultation to provide knowledge and skills to training teams and demonstration site teams in both the application of empirically supported practices for children and youth and also training of other professionals and paraprofessionals across the state. Our site is one of three, with University of Wisconsin under Len Abbedutto and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the direction of Dr. Sam Odom, who is also the principal investigator for the multisite project.

Principal Investigator:   Marjorie Solomon, Ph.D.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), including autism, high functioning autism, Asperger's disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder NOS (PDDNOS) have a prevalence of one in 150. Male predominance of these disorders is four to one, although prevalence in females may be underestimated. Studies of gender differences in ASDs have reported that girls are more severely impaired than boys on measures of social skills and executive functions, however most of these studies did not adequately control for IQ. The goal of the current study is to use behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test hypotheses about gender differences in the manifestation of social and cognitive deficits and symptoms of psychopathology in a high functioning sample of girls with ASDs.

Prinicipal Investigator:  Marjorie Solomon, Ph.D.

Cognitive control refers to the ability to flexibly allocate mental resources to guide thoughts and actions in light of internal goals. Given the behavioral inflexibility exhibited by individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), it would appear they experience cognitive control deficits. My principal research program investigates cognitive control in high functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders, and the relationship between cognitive control and behavioral symptoms. A career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health (1 K08 MH074967-01; Mentors: Drs. Cameron Carter, Sally Ozonoff, David Amaral, and Mark Lewis) will enable me to study cognitive neuroscience methods including fMRI to better investigate the neural mechanisms underlying control deficits, including functioning of the prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the basal ganglia and their relationship to restricted and repetitive behavior symptoms and formal thought disorder.

Principal Investigator:  Marjorie Solomon, Ph.D.

Autism involves dysregulated motivation in interpersonal relationships, goal-directed behavior, and learning. Theories about social aspects of motivation impairments, including those found in joint attention and face processing, recently have been articulated, however, there has been little study of non-social forms of motivation that also can create profound problems in adaptive functioning. The behavioral intervention literature also suggests that learning is dysregulated in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) since acquisition of new skills may require multiple discrete learning trials with very explicit reinforcement schedules. Paradoxically, while some rewards are not motivating enough, some are too attractive to children with ASDs. For example, engagement in repetitive behavior may be self-reinforcing and circumscribed interests can be so seductive that adaptive functioning is disrupted when the person with ASD becomes absorbed in them. I am the principal investigator on a grant funded by Autism Speaks to examine non-social aspects of reward processing in ASDs using behavioral and functional neuroimaging measures.