Investigating Phenotypic Profiles of Children and Adolescents With ASD
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorders
MeSH terms: Autism Spectrum Disorder
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed description of language and cognitive
      profiles found among children and adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
      Participants with ASD ages 4-17;12 years who have limited verbal skills will be given
      comprehensive behavioral assessments to collect data that will advance our understanding of
      language-related processes in individuals with ASD, the knowledge of which will help in
      designing future interventions for this population.
    

Detailed description: 
      About 25% to 30% of children with ASD fail to acquire spoken language. This group of children
      and adolescents with ASD has been neglected in research conducted over the past 2 decades, in
      part because the field lacks the tools to assess them, and they often pose significant
      behavioral challenges that preclude their participation in research studies. Among the ~70%
      individuals with ASD who have spoken language skills, about 50% are language impaired; the
      remaining group have normal language scores on standardized tests. To date, studies of brain
      and cognitive mechanisms that underlie this heterogeneity in ASD remain limited. The goal of
      this study, which is part of the Autism Center of Excellence, is to provide a detailed
      description of phenotypic profiles found among minimally verbal individuals diagnosed with
      ASD. Participants with ASD ages 4 to 18 will be given comprehensive assessments, including
      standardized assessments of language, nonverbal cognitive abilities and adaptive functioning.
      Assessments will also include experimental tasks based on using eye-tracking, touch screen
      and electrophysiology technology (EEG), parent-report measures and parent-child interaction
      measures. The eye-tracking and touch screen assessments will target receptive language, word
      learning mechanisms, and social attention deployment to visual and auditory stimuli. The
      EEG/ERP assessments will target auditory processing and organization, with specific focus on
      mismatch negativity (MMN) markers of auditory processing. Based on these comprehensive
      assessments the investigators aim to generate a description of the cognitive-behavioral
      phenotypes common to minimally verbal autistic individuals. The investigators will also
      investigate age-related patterns in the development of behavioral phenotypes and the role of
      symptom severity in shaping phenotypic profiles in this population. The investigators expect
      that their findings will provide valuable insights into the etiology of profound expressive
      language deficits in a significant proportion of the ASD population and will lead to
      identifying subphenotypes within the minimally verbal population.
    

Intervention name(s): No intervention
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Intervention is not a part of this study. This is a behavioral phenotyping study of minimally verbal individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Observational model: Case-Only
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Community sample