Neurodevelopmental paths to autism: Mapping the cascading effects of altered social attention on parent-child interaction

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) emerges through a complex developmental interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors, which act to alter early brain development. In the last decade or so, prospective study of infants at high familial risk for ASD (i.e. they have a sibling with autism) has allowed researchers to look back at data collected during infancy in children with a subsequent diagnosis to understand the earliest roots of the condition. This approach has uncovered multiple early predictors of later ASD (Jones et al., 2014), including slower attention shifting, diminished responsiveness to eye gaze, reduced engagement of social brain responses, and better visual search.

Under neuroconstructivist theories of brain development, alterations in how a child processes their environment will affect what they can learn, as well as what information they seek from others around them. In turn, this can affect the behaviour of their social partners. Our previous work was the first to identify emerging differences in parent-child interaction in infants with and without later ASD, including in their mutuality (Wan et al., 2012, 2013). This may inadvertently reduce the child’s social opportunities, thereby further altering their social inputs and potentially exacerbating their social difficulties. Understanding how early neurocognitive alterations have cascading effects on parental behaviour and influence the emergence of behavioural symptoms is critical to optimising early intervention (Green et al., 2015, 2017).

This PhD project will focus on a subset of longitudinal data (N=100) from the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (BASIS). The PhD will require the studying of videos of examiner-child interaction and parent-child play interaction, which will include training to code these videos. The student will investigate how these behavioural measures link with other measures already collected from this cohort, including assays of brain, cognitive and behavioural development over the first two years of life.

Training/techniques to be provided:
Full training will be provided in coding videos of parent-child interaction and examiner-child interaction, including MACI (Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Child Interaction – Infant and Toddler versions). Other training would be provided as appropriate to complete the PhD and for the student’s professional development.