Project R-3964

Through A Kid's Eyes: Do action and intention understanding differentiate young children with autism spectrum disorders from typically developing peers? (Research)

Autism is one of the most frequent childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, characterised by a limited social reciprocity. Although the onset of autism is before the age of 3 years, the diagnosis is often delayed until school age. This project seeks to examine possible prerequisites for imitation to advance the early diagnosis of autism. In the first work package we will study an observation-understanding-execution model in a reference group of typically developing children. This model assumes that action and intention understanding are prerequisites for imitation. This model predicts that children identify motor referential cues, which convey the adults' intentions, to understand and predict observed actions; that action and intention understanding provoke similar action patterns in the children; and that similar action patterns provoke spontaneous imitation. We will use noninvasive methods, in particular eye-tracking techniques for assessing identification of motor referential cues and EMG registration for assessing involuntary muscle activities within the action patterns. In the clinical work package we will use the newly acquired knowledge to investigate whether infants and toddlers with autism and at risk for autism have altered patterns of action and intention understanding and/or altered associations between action and intention understanding and muscle activation and/or altered associations between muscle activation and spontaneous imitation as compared with chronological and mental age matched typically developing peers. Our results will lead to increased insight in altered functional connectivity within the action-observation network, including the mirror neuron system, which may be a promising early biomarker for autism.

01 October 2012 - 30 September 2016