Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, London, United Kingdom.
Infant Behav Dev. 2010 Dec;33(4):482-91. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.05.004. Epub 2010 Jul 6.
Atypical attention has been proposed as a marker of the broader autism phenotype. In the present study we investigated this and the related process of inhibitory control at the youngest possible age through the study of infant siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder (Sibs-ASD). Both attention and inhibition have been related to the frontal cortex of the brain. Nine- to ten-month-old Sibs-ASD and low-risk control infants completed the Freeze-Frame task, in which infants are encouraged to inhibit looks to peripherally presented distractors whilst looking at a central animation. The attractiveness of the central stimulus is varied in order to investigate the selectivity of infants' responses. In line with previous studies, it was found that a subset of Sibs-ASD infants had difficulty disengaging attention from a central stimulus in order to orient to a peripheral stimulus. The Sibs-ASD group also showed less Selective Inhibition than controls. However, Sibs-ASD infants did demonstrate Selective Inhibitory Learning. These results provide preliminary evidence for atypical frontal cortex functioning in the infant broader autism phenotype.
非典型注意被认为是广泛自闭症表型的一个标志。在本研究中，我们通过研究自闭症谱系障碍儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹（Sibs-ASD），在尽可能小的年龄研究了这一点和相关的抑制控制过程。注意和抑制都与大脑的额叶有关。9 到 10 个月大的 Sibs-ASD 和低风险对照组婴儿完成了冻结帧任务，在这个任务中，鼓励婴儿在观看中央动画的同时抑制看向周边呈现的分心物。为了研究婴儿反应的选择性，中央刺激的吸引力是变化的。与之前的研究一致，发现一组 Sibs-ASD 婴儿难以从中央刺激中转移注意力，以便将注意力转向周边刺激。Sibs-ASD 组的选择性抑制也比对照组少。然而，Sibs-ASD 婴儿确实表现出选择性抑制学习。这些结果为婴儿广泛自闭症表型中额叶功能异常提供了初步证据。
