Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
PLoS One. 2013 May 29;8(5):e64967. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064967. Print 2013.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that affects social behavior and language acquisition. ASD exhibits great variability in outcomes, with some individuals remaining nonverbal and others exhibiting average or above average function. Cognitive ability contributes to heterogeneity in autism and serves as a modest predictor of later function. We show that a brain measure (event-related potentials, ERPs) of word processing in children with ASD, assessed at the age of 2 years (N = 24), is a broad and robust predictor of receptive language, cognitive ability, and adaptive behavior at ages 4 and 6 years, regardless of the form of intensive clinical treatment during the intervening years. The predictive strength of this brain measure increases over time, and exceeds the predictive strength of a measure of cognitive ability, used here for comparison. These findings have theoretical implications and may eventually lead to neural measures that allow early prediction of developmental outcomes as well as more individually tailored clinical interventions, with the potential for greater effectiveness in treating children with ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种发育障碍，会影响社交行为和语言习得。ASD 的结果存在很大的变异性，一些人仍然无法说话，而另一些人则表现出平均或高于平均水平的功能。认知能力是自闭症异质性的一个因素，并作为对后期功能的适度预测指标。我们表明，在 2 岁时（N=24）评估的自闭症儿童的大脑（事件相关电位，ERPs）处理单词的测量值是接受性语言、认知能力和适应行为在 4 岁和 6 岁的广泛而强大的预测指标，无论在干预期间接受何种形式的强化临床治疗。该大脑测量值的预测强度随时间增加，并且超过了用于比较的认知能力测量值的预测强度。这些发现具有理论意义，最终可能会导致神经测量值能够早期预测发育结果，以及更具个性化的临床干预措施，从而有可能提高治疗自闭症儿童的效果。
