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Toddler gaze patterns heritable, stable over time
NEW YORK – A team of autism researchers has found that patterns of social-visual engagement are markedly more similar among identical twin toddlers than among fraternal twins.
Social-visual engagement (SVE), which can be measured using eye-tracking technology, is how humans give preferential attention to social stimuli – in particular, people’s eyes and mouths, which provide important information for communication.
Lower levels of SVE have been shown to be associated with the later development of autism, even in children just a few months old (Nature. 2013 Dec 19;504:427-31). “But what hasn’t been shown until now is that this measure relates to genetics,” said Natasha Marrus, MD, PhD, of the department of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.
The identical twins, who share 100% of their genes, “showed much more similar levels of social-visual engagement than fraternal twins,” Dr. Marrus said, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.95) for time spent looking at eyes, compared with 0.35 (95% CI, 0.07-0.59) for fraternal twins. Similar results were obtained for the caregiver questionnaire, suggesting strong genetic influences on both early reciprocal social behavior and SVE, said Dr. Marrus, also of Washington University.
At 36 months, 69 of the twin pairs were reevaluated. The investigators again found significantly greater SVE concordance for the identical twins: ICC, 0.93 (95% CI, 0.75-0.98), compared with ICC, 0.25 (95% CI, 0.0-0.60) for fraternal twins. They also found SVE patterns strongly correlated between 21 and 36 months for individual twins, indicating traitlike stability of this behavior over time.
“These two measures that are heritable, like autism, can be measured in a general population sample, which means they show good variability – potentially allowing the detection of subtle differences that may correspond to levels of risk for autism,” Dr. Marrus said. “By 18-21 months, the risk markers for later autism are already there – if you use a nuanced enough measure to detect them.”
Dr. Marrus said that while some practitioners have been able to reliably diagnose autism in children younger than 24 months, “it’s usually with the most severe cases,” she said. “But 18 months is a big time for social as well as language development, which becomes easier to measure at that point.”
A future direction for study, she said, “would be to go earlier. If we’re seeing this at 18 months, maybe we’d see it at 12.”
With autism, “early intervention is key, and even 6 months could make a difference,” Dr. Marrus said. “These two measures stand a really good chance of telling us important things about autism – which at early ages means better diagnostic prediction, measurement of severity and risk, and the potential to monitor responses to interventions.”
The National Institutes of Health supported the study through a grant to Dr. Constantino, and Dr. Marrus’s work was supported with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation. The investigators declared no relevant financial conflicts.
NEW YORK – A team of autism researchers has found that patterns of social-visual engagement are markedly more similar among identical twin toddlers than among fraternal twins.
Social-visual engagement (SVE), which can be measured using eye-tracking technology, is how humans give preferential attention to social stimuli – in particular, people’s eyes and mouths, which provide important information for communication.
Lower levels of SVE have been shown to be associated with the later development of autism, even in children just a few months old (Nature. 2013 Dec 19;504:427-31). “But what hasn’t been shown until now is that this measure relates to genetics,” said Natasha Marrus, MD, PhD, of the department of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.
The identical twins, who share 100% of their genes, “showed much more similar levels of social-visual engagement than fraternal twins,” Dr. Marrus said, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.95) for time spent looking at eyes, compared with 0.35 (95% CI, 0.07-0.59) for fraternal twins. Similar results were obtained for the caregiver questionnaire, suggesting strong genetic influences on both early reciprocal social behavior and SVE, said Dr. Marrus, also of Washington University.
At 36 months, 69 of the twin pairs were reevaluated. The investigators again found significantly greater SVE concordance for the identical twins: ICC, 0.93 (95% CI, 0.75-0.98), compared with ICC, 0.25 (95% CI, 0.0-0.60) for fraternal twins. They also found SVE patterns strongly correlated between 21 and 36 months for individual twins, indicating traitlike stability of this behavior over time.
“These two measures that are heritable, like autism, can be measured in a general population sample, which means they show good variability – potentially allowing the detection of subtle differences that may correspond to levels of risk for autism,” Dr. Marrus said. “By 18-21 months, the risk markers for later autism are already there – if you use a nuanced enough measure to detect them.”
Dr. Marrus said that while some practitioners have been able to reliably diagnose autism in children younger than 24 months, “it’s usually with the most severe cases,” she said. “But 18 months is a big time for social as well as language development, which becomes easier to measure at that point.”
A future direction for study, she said, “would be to go earlier. If we’re seeing this at 18 months, maybe we’d see it at 12.”
With autism, “early intervention is key, and even 6 months could make a difference,” Dr. Marrus said. “These two measures stand a really good chance of telling us important things about autism – which at early ages means better diagnostic prediction, measurement of severity and risk, and the potential to monitor responses to interventions.”
The National Institutes of Health supported the study through a grant to Dr. Constantino, and Dr. Marrus’s work was supported with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation. The investigators declared no relevant financial conflicts.
NEW YORK – A team of autism researchers has found that patterns of social-visual engagement are markedly more similar among identical twin toddlers than among fraternal twins.
Social-visual engagement (SVE), which can be measured using eye-tracking technology, is how humans give preferential attention to social stimuli – in particular, people’s eyes and mouths, which provide important information for communication.
Lower levels of SVE have been shown to be associated with the later development of autism, even in children just a few months old (Nature. 2013 Dec 19;504:427-31). “But what hasn’t been shown until now is that this measure relates to genetics,” said Natasha Marrus, MD, PhD, of the department of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.
The identical twins, who share 100% of their genes, “showed much more similar levels of social-visual engagement than fraternal twins,” Dr. Marrus said, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.95) for time spent looking at eyes, compared with 0.35 (95% CI, 0.07-0.59) for fraternal twins. Similar results were obtained for the caregiver questionnaire, suggesting strong genetic influences on both early reciprocal social behavior and SVE, said Dr. Marrus, also of Washington University.
At 36 months, 69 of the twin pairs were reevaluated. The investigators again found significantly greater SVE concordance for the identical twins: ICC, 0.93 (95% CI, 0.75-0.98), compared with ICC, 0.25 (95% CI, 0.0-0.60) for fraternal twins. They also found SVE patterns strongly correlated between 21 and 36 months for individual twins, indicating traitlike stability of this behavior over time.
“These two measures that are heritable, like autism, can be measured in a general population sample, which means they show good variability – potentially allowing the detection of subtle differences that may correspond to levels of risk for autism,” Dr. Marrus said. “By 18-21 months, the risk markers for later autism are already there – if you use a nuanced enough measure to detect them.”
Dr. Marrus said that while some practitioners have been able to reliably diagnose autism in children younger than 24 months, “it’s usually with the most severe cases,” she said. “But 18 months is a big time for social as well as language development, which becomes easier to measure at that point.”
A future direction for study, she said, “would be to go earlier. If we’re seeing this at 18 months, maybe we’d see it at 12.”
With autism, “early intervention is key, and even 6 months could make a difference,” Dr. Marrus said. “These two measures stand a really good chance of telling us important things about autism – which at early ages means better diagnostic prediction, measurement of severity and risk, and the potential to monitor responses to interventions.”
The National Institutes of Health supported the study through a grant to Dr. Constantino, and Dr. Marrus’s work was supported with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation. The investigators declared no relevant financial conflicts.
AT AACAP 2016
Homeless youth and risk: Untangling role of executive function
NEW YORK – Researchers studying the executive functioning ability of homeless youth have found that individuals with poor executive function report more alcohol abuse and dependence than do those with higher EF.
The results are from a study of 149 youth aged 18-22 years (53% female) living in shelters in Chicago. Subjects self-reported behaviors in a series of interviews that used three validated measures of executive function.
Scott J. Hunter, Ph.D., director of neuropsychology at the University of Chicago, presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Hunter said in an interview that the results help identify low executive functioning as both a likely contributor to risk-taking behavior and a potential target of interventions.
“We believe that the EF may be the primary concern, although the interaction [with drugs and alcohol] is something that we have to take into account,” he said. “One of the biggest issues here is how do you disentangle that executive piece with the use of substances?”
In this cohort, Dr. Hunter said, about 75% of subjects were African American and an additional 25% or so were mixed race or Latino. About half comprised a sexual minority (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender). “Many had been kicked out of their homes,” he said.
Close to 80% of the youth in the study used cannabis regularly, and three-quarters used alcohol. The group with low EF used the greatest level of substances regularly. Admission of unprotected sexual intercourse was highest among the heavier substance users as well, suggesting “a reliance on substances to reduce sensitivity to the risks they were taking,” said Dr. Hunter, also a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, and pediatrics at the university.
He said the study “is providing some support for our hypothesis that the less successful these young people are in their development of EF, particularly around inhibition, the more likely it is they are going to be engaging in risk-taking behaviors that lead to cycles of more challenge” and development of psychopathology.
The researchers are considering an intervention for this population derived from EF interventions for use with adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In their current shelter environments, he said, the youth are “already undergoing programs to learn adaptive functioning to be more successful, and we’re thinking of adding an executive component where they tie the decision-making component to what they want as outcomes.”
The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls executive function, is not yet fully developed in adolescence, and studies have shown that youth growing up in impoverished environments have decreases or alterations in cortical development (Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Aug 17;6:238). “What we have to think about is that we’re still at a [developmental] point where this enhancement and myelination is taking place – into the mid-20s, in fact. We may find that [an intervention] can help them better activate that,” Dr. Hunter said.
The lead author on this study was Joshua Piche, a medical student at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Hunter also is collaborating with epidemiologist John Schneider, MD, MPH, of the University of Chicago, in a study of 600 young black men who have sex with men. The researchers are looking at drug-, alcohol-related, and sexual decision-making in that cohort, about a quarter of whom are homeless. The study includes functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subgroup of subjects.
Currently, as many as 2 million U.S. youth are estimated to be living on the streets, in shelters, or in other temporary housing environments.
NEW YORK – Researchers studying the executive functioning ability of homeless youth have found that individuals with poor executive function report more alcohol abuse and dependence than do those with higher EF.
The results are from a study of 149 youth aged 18-22 years (53% female) living in shelters in Chicago. Subjects self-reported behaviors in a series of interviews that used three validated measures of executive function.
Scott J. Hunter, Ph.D., director of neuropsychology at the University of Chicago, presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Hunter said in an interview that the results help identify low executive functioning as both a likely contributor to risk-taking behavior and a potential target of interventions.
“We believe that the EF may be the primary concern, although the interaction [with drugs and alcohol] is something that we have to take into account,” he said. “One of the biggest issues here is how do you disentangle that executive piece with the use of substances?”
In this cohort, Dr. Hunter said, about 75% of subjects were African American and an additional 25% or so were mixed race or Latino. About half comprised a sexual minority (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender). “Many had been kicked out of their homes,” he said.
Close to 80% of the youth in the study used cannabis regularly, and three-quarters used alcohol. The group with low EF used the greatest level of substances regularly. Admission of unprotected sexual intercourse was highest among the heavier substance users as well, suggesting “a reliance on substances to reduce sensitivity to the risks they were taking,” said Dr. Hunter, also a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, and pediatrics at the university.
He said the study “is providing some support for our hypothesis that the less successful these young people are in their development of EF, particularly around inhibition, the more likely it is they are going to be engaging in risk-taking behaviors that lead to cycles of more challenge” and development of psychopathology.
The researchers are considering an intervention for this population derived from EF interventions for use with adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In their current shelter environments, he said, the youth are “already undergoing programs to learn adaptive functioning to be more successful, and we’re thinking of adding an executive component where they tie the decision-making component to what they want as outcomes.”
The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls executive function, is not yet fully developed in adolescence, and studies have shown that youth growing up in impoverished environments have decreases or alterations in cortical development (Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Aug 17;6:238). “What we have to think about is that we’re still at a [developmental] point where this enhancement and myelination is taking place – into the mid-20s, in fact. We may find that [an intervention] can help them better activate that,” Dr. Hunter said.
The lead author on this study was Joshua Piche, a medical student at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Hunter also is collaborating with epidemiologist John Schneider, MD, MPH, of the University of Chicago, in a study of 600 young black men who have sex with men. The researchers are looking at drug-, alcohol-related, and sexual decision-making in that cohort, about a quarter of whom are homeless. The study includes functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subgroup of subjects.
Currently, as many as 2 million U.S. youth are estimated to be living on the streets, in shelters, or in other temporary housing environments.
NEW YORK – Researchers studying the executive functioning ability of homeless youth have found that individuals with poor executive function report more alcohol abuse and dependence than do those with higher EF.
The results are from a study of 149 youth aged 18-22 years (53% female) living in shelters in Chicago. Subjects self-reported behaviors in a series of interviews that used three validated measures of executive function.
Scott J. Hunter, Ph.D., director of neuropsychology at the University of Chicago, presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Hunter said in an interview that the results help identify low executive functioning as both a likely contributor to risk-taking behavior and a potential target of interventions.
“We believe that the EF may be the primary concern, although the interaction [with drugs and alcohol] is something that we have to take into account,” he said. “One of the biggest issues here is how do you disentangle that executive piece with the use of substances?”
In this cohort, Dr. Hunter said, about 75% of subjects were African American and an additional 25% or so were mixed race or Latino. About half comprised a sexual minority (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender). “Many had been kicked out of their homes,” he said.
Close to 80% of the youth in the study used cannabis regularly, and three-quarters used alcohol. The group with low EF used the greatest level of substances regularly. Admission of unprotected sexual intercourse was highest among the heavier substance users as well, suggesting “a reliance on substances to reduce sensitivity to the risks they were taking,” said Dr. Hunter, also a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, and pediatrics at the university.
He said the study “is providing some support for our hypothesis that the less successful these young people are in their development of EF, particularly around inhibition, the more likely it is they are going to be engaging in risk-taking behaviors that lead to cycles of more challenge” and development of psychopathology.
The researchers are considering an intervention for this population derived from EF interventions for use with adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In their current shelter environments, he said, the youth are “already undergoing programs to learn adaptive functioning to be more successful, and we’re thinking of adding an executive component where they tie the decision-making component to what they want as outcomes.”
The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls executive function, is not yet fully developed in adolescence, and studies have shown that youth growing up in impoverished environments have decreases or alterations in cortical development (Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Aug 17;6:238). “What we have to think about is that we’re still at a [developmental] point where this enhancement and myelination is taking place – into the mid-20s, in fact. We may find that [an intervention] can help them better activate that,” Dr. Hunter said.
The lead author on this study was Joshua Piche, a medical student at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Hunter also is collaborating with epidemiologist John Schneider, MD, MPH, of the University of Chicago, in a study of 600 young black men who have sex with men. The researchers are looking at drug-, alcohol-related, and sexual decision-making in that cohort, about a quarter of whom are homeless. The study includes functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subgroup of subjects.
Currently, as many as 2 million U.S. youth are estimated to be living on the streets, in shelters, or in other temporary housing environments.