Social visual engagement in infants and toddlers with autism: Early developmental transitions and a model of pathogenesis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Ami Klin, Emory University; Sarah Shultz, Emory University; Warren Jones, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-03-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.006
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
• ISSN: 0149-7634
• Volume: 50
• Start Page: 189
• End Page: 203
• Grant/Funding Information: Additional support was provided by the Marcus Foundation; the J.B. Whitehead Foundation; and the Georgia Research Alliance.; This work was supported by grants from the Simons Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH083727; P50-MH100029).
• Keywords: Biological motion; HIGHER-FUNCTIONING AUTISM; Autism; ASPERGER-SYNDROME; SPECTRUM DISORDERS; Science & Technology; Neurosciences & Neurology; Neurosciences; LATERAL GENICULATE-NUCLEUS; Prodromal; EYE CONTACT; Visual imprinting; Eye fixation; NEURONAL SYNCHRONIZATION; Epigenetics; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Social visual engagement; BIOLOGICAL MOTION PERCEPTION; Pathogenesis; FILIAL PREFERENCES; Infancy; Autism spectrum disorders; Behavioral Sciences; NEURAL MECHANISMS; 6-MONTH-OLD INFANTS
• Research Categories: Psychology, Developmental; Health Sciences, Mental Health; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Efforts to determine and understand the causes of autism are currently hampered by a large disconnect between recent molecular genetics findings that are associated with the condition and the core behavioral symptoms that define the condition. In this perspective piece, we propose a systems biology framework to bridge that gap between genes and symptoms. The framework focuses on basic mechanisms of socialization that are highly-conserved in evolution and are early-emerging in development. By conceiving of these basic mechanisms of socialization as quantitative endophenotypes, we hope to connect genes and behavior in autism through integrative studies of neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and epigenetic changes. These changes both lead to and are led by the accomplishment of specific social adaptive tasks in a typical infant's life. However, based on recent research that indicates that infants later diagnosed with autism fail to accomplish at least some of these tasks, we suggest that a narrow developmental period, spanning critical transitions from reflexive, subcortically-controlled visual behavior to interactional, cortically-controlled and social visual behavior be prioritized for future study. Mapping epigenetic, neural, and behavioral changes that both drive and are driven by these early transitions may shed a bright light on the pathogenesis of autism.