Wilson Rujuta B, Vangala Sitaram, Reetzke Rachel, Piergies Antonia, Ozonoff Sally, Miller Meghan
UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, California, USA.
UCLA Department of Medicine Statistics Core, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Autism Res. 2024 Jun;17(6):1094-1105. doi: 10.1002/aur.3150. Epub 2024 May 15.
Early motor delays and differences are common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet, little work has shown whether there are early atypical motor signs that differentiate these groups. Quantitative measures of movement variability hold promise for improving the identification of subtle and specific differences in motor function among infants and toddlers at high likelihood for ASD and ADHD. To this end, we created a novel quantitative measure of movement variability (movement curvature) and conducted a preliminary investigation as to whether this measure improves outcome predictions. We used a wearable triaxial accelerometer to evaluate continuous motion-based activity in infants at high and low likelihood for ASD and ADHD at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age. At 36 months, participants were categorized into three outcome groups: ASD (n = 19), ADHD concerns (n = 17), and a comparison group (n = 82). We examined group differences in movement curvature and whether movement curvature is predictive of a later ASD or ADHD concerns classification. We found that movement curvature was significantly lower in infants with later ASD diagnosis at 18, 24, and 36 months of age compared to infants with either ADHD concerns or those in the comparison group. Movement curvature was also a significant predictor of ASD at 18, 24, and 36 months (AUC 0.66-0.71; p = 0.005-0.039) and when adjusting for high ASD likelihood at 18 and 24 months (AUC 0.90, p = 0.05-0.019). These results indicate that lower movement curvature may be a feature of early motor differences in infants with later ASD diagnosis as early as 18 months of age.
早期运动延迟和差异在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）儿童中很常见。然而，很少有研究表明是否存在能区分这些群体的早期非典型运动体征。运动变异性的定量测量有望改善对ASD和ADHD高风险婴幼儿运动功能细微和特定差异的识别。为此，我们创建了一种新的运动变异性定量测量方法（运动曲率），并对该测量方法是否能改善结果预测进行了初步调查。我们使用可穿戴三轴加速度计，在12、18、24和36月龄时评估ASD和ADHD高风险和低风险婴幼儿基于连续运动的活动。在36月龄时，参与者被分为三个结果组：ASD组（n = 19）、ADHD相关组（n = 17）和对照组（n = 82）。我们检查了运动曲率的组间差异，以及运动曲率是否能预测后期的ASD或ADHD相关分类。我们发现，与ADHD相关组或对照组的婴儿相比，18、24和36月龄时后来被诊断为ASD的婴儿的运动曲率显著更低。运动曲率在18、24和36月龄时也是ASD的显著预测指标（AUC 0.66 - 0.71；p = 0.005 - 0.039），并且在调整18和24月龄时的高ASD风险后（AUC 0.90，p = 0.05 - 0.019）也是如此。这些结果表明，较低的运动曲率可能是早在18月龄时后来被诊断为ASD的婴儿早期运动差异的一个特征。
