101 research outputs found
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Differences in Autistic and Nonautistic Youth
No full textResearch comparing physiological differences in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia between Autistic and Nonautistic adolescents in an ecologically valid setting.Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) represents the activity of the vagus nerve and is an indicator of parasympathetic activity. Low levels of RSA at rest indicate blunted parasympathetic activity. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory suggests that vagus nerve activity is linked to one’s ability to regulate their physiological states and social behaviors (Porges, 2007). Many studies have shown that there is a difference in RSA values between autistic and nonautistic individuals, which is thought to be connected to weakened stress responses and a decreased ability to adapt in social situations (Cheng, 2020). While these studies have shown that these two groups differ at rest, many of them lacked ecological validity as they were conducted in a laboratory setting. Thus, our research question aimed to answer if there are differences in RSA at baseline between autistic and non autistic adolescents in a more ecologically valid setting using data collected in participants' homes. Twenty-two (11 autistic, 11 nonautistic) youth,Mage 12.9 years (SD=0.85) participated in the current study. Participants were asked to wear a Zephyr Bioharness and biomodule that gathered physiological data including heart rate and breathing rate for around 10 minutes for 1-3 timepoints in a home setting. We then processed the data into RSA values. Using an independent sample t-test, we found that there were significant differences in RSA values between the two groups. Specifically, autistic adolescents were found to have lower RSA during at-home baselines relative to the nonautistic group (t=3.247, p= <0.01). Our study produced similar results as previous research, but in a more ecological setting.Research reported in this publication was supported by a pilot grant from the UMD Brain and Behavior Institute to Dr. Yarger and a National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award number R01MH125370 to Dr. Redcay. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH
Neural Similarity as a Predictor of Social Motivation
No full textAn undergraduate honors thesis project completed under Dr. Elizabeth Redcay at the University of Maryland
Relations between Social Motivation and Gaze Behavior in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adolescents
No full textAutistic individuals experience challenges in their social interactions. One factor that may underlie these challenges is social motivation, which may also be related to variations in eye contact. Perspectives on this relation consist of several mixed views, potentially due to the fact that most research has been done in static, non-real world settings. My research uses mobile eye-tracking to bridge this gap by analyzing gaze patterns in individuals from three different dyad types: N-AUT (Non-autistic)-N-AUT (n = 37), AUT (Autistic)-N-AUT (n = 24), and AUT-AUT (n = 6), with a total of 67 participants, exploring the link between gaze-to-face behavior and social motivation during live interactions. I hypothesize that there will be a significant positive correlation between gaze and social motivation. The visit my research focuses on simulates a real-world environment, allowing better assessment of the underlying aspects of peer social interactions. It consists of both an interactional and individual section. Throughout the duration of the interaction, both participants of the dyad are wearing eye-tracking glasses, which I will use to quantify their gaze-to-face behavior. To assess social motivation, I am focusing on an individual task, which uses money as a reward. In the task, the participant is given options to choose between learning more about their partner, other kids their age, or trivia facts. I am measuring social motivation by comparing the percentage of time participants select trivia over their partner, and other kids over their partner. Once all data is collected, I will assess the correlation between gaze-to-face behavior and social motivation, furthering understanding of their link in a real-world setting
Amygdala Volume and Social Reward in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
No full textSocial interaction is a vital part of our everyday life and while there have been many studies that have helped elucidate both the neural components and extrinsic factors of these processes, it is still something that is not completely understood. This is especially relevant to those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as they are often characterized as having social processing deficits. Social cognition is one of the many functions associated with the limbic system, along with reward and emotion processing. Previous studies have shown that social interaction is rewarding and has been shown to activate regions in the limbic system (Warnell et al., 2017). The amygdala is a region included in social/reward circuitry within the limbic system, such that larger amygdala volumes have been associated with higher connectivity within these regions (Bickart et al., 2012). There have not been previous studies to our knowledge assessing how amygdala volume and social reward sensitivity may vary together, motivating the current study. Therefore, this study aims to assess how social reward relates to amygdala volume in 49 children (ASD = 21, TD = 31) aged 8 to 14 with and without a diagnosis of ASD. Social reward will be assessed using the Prosocial Interactions and Sociability subscales of the Social Reward Questionnaire (SRQ; Foulkes et al., 2014). Amygdala volumes were extracted using MRICloud (Mori et al., 2016). Amygdala size and SRQ subscale differences between groups will be analyzed using an analysis of covariance (controlling for total gray matter) and an independent samples t-test, respectively. A regression analysis will be conducted in order to examine amygdala and SRQ associations.University of Maryland; National Institute of Mental Health, Grant/Award Number R01-MH10744
Parental Mental State Talk and Associations with Children’s Mentalizing Ability in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
No full textThe current project investigated the relationship between parental mental state talk and their child's use of mentalizing language, in both children with typical development (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants included 40 parent-child dyads (20 ASD, 20 TD), and measured spontaneous/unprompted mentalizing tendencies in both parents and children using the Mind-Mindedness task and Triangles task, respectively. Results suggest that average amount of child mentalizing statements is not significantly associated with average parental mental state talk, and the relationship is not moderated by group status (ASD/TD). Though the current study rendered no significant associations, the links between parental and child mental state use in later childhood years, especially in the context of developmental disorders, represents a key area of exploration for future research
sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613241238269 – Supplemental material for Smiling synchronization predicts interaction enjoyment in peer dyads of autistic and neurotypical youth
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613241238269 for Smiling synchronization predicts interaction enjoyment in peer dyads of autistic and neurotypical youth by Kathryn A McNaughton, Alexandra Moss, Heather A Yarger and Elizabeth Redcay in Autism</p
sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613221103699 – Supplemental material for Theory of mind in naturalistic conversations between autistic and typically developing children and adolescents
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613221103699 for Theory of mind in naturalistic conversations between autistic and typically developing children and adolescents by Diana Alkire, Kathryn A McNaughton, Heather A Yarger, Deena Shariq and Elizabeth Redcay in Autism</p
Effect Of Neural Sensitivity to Social Reward on Naturalistic Social Motivation in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adolescents
No full textBackground: Social engagement differences are a core diagnostic feature of autism, though there is debate as to whether they reflect a decreased intrinsic motivation for social interaction due to neural differences in social reward processing. Much of the research in this area has methodological limitations, such as the lack of behavioral measurements of social motivation and non- ecologically relevant social reward stimuli. This is a particularly important topic to research in an adolescent age group, as peer bonds become integral to social and emotional development in this developmental stage. Objective: Assess how neural sensitivity to social reward is related to social motivation to engage with a peer in autistic and non-autistic adolescents. Method: 52 adolescents (11 autistic, 41 non-autistic, age 11-14) completed an fMRI task where they learned about commonalities and differences they had with an anonymous peer as well as randomized responses from a computer. Our primary measure of neural sensitivity to social reward is the differential activation in nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region that is often involved in reward processing, between positive peer responses and positive computer responses. Activation was also measured in Heschl's gyrus, an auditory processing area not closely related to reward, as a control comparison. Additionally, secondary exploratory analyses also included assessment of activation in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which are also involved in reward processing, to the peer versus the computer responses. Some time afterwards, the participants returned to have an in person interaction in a dyad with an age and gender matched peer in the study. After the interaction, the participants separately completed a behavioral measure of social reward, where they had the opportunity to choose between learning more about their peer partner or about non-social trivia. Each choice corresponded to different amounts of monetary reward (1-4 cents), meaning participants chose whether or not to forgo some monetary reward in order to learn more about their preferred topics. Social motivation was measured based on the proportion of responses where the participants chose to learn more about their partner compared to trivia. Results: The data was analyzed using mixed effects models that take into account neural activation, gender, age, and autism diagnosis status as fixed effects and dyad membership as a random intercept. We found a significant relationship between activation in the NAc (p=.019) and social motivation in the behavioral task. The secondary analyses did not reach significance after correcting for multiple comparisons, with amygdala (p=.033) and OFC (p=.5193) activation not significantly predicting social motivation. There was no significant relationship between activation in Heschl’s gyrus and social motivation (p=.635). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that heterogeneity in autistic and non autistic adolescents' social motivation relates to their neural sensitivity to social reward in the NAc. The lack of a relationship between activation in Heschl’s gyrus and social motivation provides more support that this relationship is specifically related to differences in reward related regions. This finding can help us better understand and accommodate the social differences found in autism.NIH grant to Elizabeth Redcay, 5R01MH125370-03 and an NIH grant to Kathryn McNaughton, F31MH12778
Understanding the Relationship Between Theory of Mind and Anxiety in Autistic and Typically Developing Children
No full textAnxiety disorder can be especially difficult to deal with for children and adolescents. Previous literature has indicated a relationship between anxiety and theory of mind ability. Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand the beliefs, emotions, and intentions of another person and acknowledge that these mental states may differ from their own. Previously, individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder demonstrated lower ToM ability than their peers. However, these studies used a limited number of tasks and a sample of only typically developing (TD) adults. The relationship between anxiety and ToM is less understood when the presence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is considered. Understanding anxiety in children with ASD is important because they are diagnosed with anxiety disorder at a higher rate compared to their TD peers. To explore this relationship in both ASD and TD samples, data was collected using the Strange Stories Task and the Screening for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED) questionnaire for 44 participants ages 7-14 years old. 22 participants had an ASD diagnosis and 22 did not. Strange Stories assesses ability to accurately use ToM to answer questions about characters’ mental states in fictional stories. The SCARED questionnaire is completed by parents to evaluate how much anxiety is typically experienced by the child. From these data, the correlation between ToM accuracy and total anxiety score will be examined. Differences in ToM and anxiety scores between groups will also be investigated. The results could allow for better understanding of ToM and anxiety in children with and without autism
Friendships and Mental Health in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adolescents
No full textFriends rise in importance during adolescence (Siegal et al., 2009). Additionally, friends have an impact on internalizing symptoms as adolescents begin to seek approval from friends. High quality friendships are characterized by a variety of factors such as help, security, closeness, companionship, and low conflict (Bukowski et al., 1994). The limitations of current research entails a lack of observation of the quantity of reciprocated friendships alongside marked friendship quality, compared to self-reported internalizing symptoms in autistic and non-autistic youth; thus fueling our research’s objective. The present study investigated 1) group differences in friendship quality, friendship security, and internalizing symptoms. Additionally, we investigated 2) whether reciprocated friendships or friendship quality were associated with internalizing symptoms in autistic and non-autistic adolescents. . Participants were 84 adolescents (64 autistic, 20 non-autistic) aged 11-14 (M = 12.87, SD = 1.79). Friendship security and help were significantly lower in autistic adolescents compared to non-autistic adolescents. However, group accounted for the largest variance in internalizing symptoms. Significant results were not found for our second aim. These outcomes seem to emphasize that non-autistic adolescents may tend to have a higher sense of security and help in their friendships compared to their autistic peers, emphasizing the need for supporting a sense of security and help in autistic youth and their friendships
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