共同注意是指两个人共同对某一事物加以注意，分享对该事物的兴趣，它是儿童社会认知发展的奠基性能力。首先，孤独症儿童共同注意发展主要体现在注视转换、主动展示、分享等能力发展滞后及缺陷：孤独症儿童共同注意的神经基础：应答性共同注意主要涉及后部皮层注意网络（如颞上沟后部，顶内沟等），自发性共同注意涉及前部皮层注意网络（如前扣带皮层、背内侧额叶等）；最后，以回合式教法和关键反应训练为基本方法，论述了共同注意干预的新近模式和效果评估。未来研究应在孤独症儿童的共同注意发展的年龄特征及机制、共同注意的脑区可塑性及脑网络的发展以及开发更有效的干预方法等方面展开大量研究。

研究探讨了孤独症儿童的情绪共情能力及情绪表情注意方式的特点。各选取15名孤独症儿童以及作为对照组的智力障碍儿童和普通儿童各15名，完成情绪共情实验，同时使用生物反馈仪记录自主生理反应，眼动仪记录眼动轨迹。结果发现孤独症儿童对情绪表情的自动模仿及感知能力显著低于智力障碍儿童与普通儿童；对面孔的总注视时间、总注视点数均显著少于智力障碍儿童、普通儿童；对眼部、嘴部的注视时间比及注视点数比均显著低于普通儿童；对高兴和悲伤表情的注意较多而对恐惧则较少。这提示孤独症儿童的情绪共情能力不足、对情绪表情的注意方式异常。

自闭症谱系障碍(Autism spectrum disorders,ASD)是一种常见的神经发育障碍,ASD在社交、语言、行为等方面的障碍与其异常的大脑功能连接存在密切关系。与正常发育者相比,ASD大脑既表现出远距离功能连接不足,也表现出局部功能连接过度增强。ASD这种异常的脑功能连接受到结构异常、扫描状态、个体发展、分析方法等多种因素的影响。未来的ASD脑机制研究中,要综合分析脑功能与结构,关注年龄发展变化,并将任务状态、被试取样、数据分析标准等因素纳入考察。

Abstract Empathy can be defined as a social interaction skill that consists of four components: (1) a statement voiced in the (2) appropriate intonation, accompanied by a (3) facial expression and (4) gesture that correspond to the affect of another individual. A multiple-baseline across response categories experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a prompt sequence (video modeling, in vivo modeling, manual and verbal prompting) and reinforcement to increase the frequency of complex empathetic responding by four children with autism. The number of complex empathetic responses increased systematically with the successive introduction of the treatment package. Additionally, generalization was demonstrated to untaught stimuli and a novel adult. Responding maintained over time to varying degrees for all participants. The data illustrate that children with autism can be taught using modeling, prompting, and reinforcement to discriminate between categories of affective stimuli and differentially respond with complex empathetic responses.

Abstract Both oxytocin and serotonin modulate affiliative responses to partners and offspring. Animal studies suggest a crucial role of oxytocin in mammalian parturition and lactation but also in parenting and social interactions with offspring. The serotonergic system may also be important through its influence on mood and the release of oxytocin. We examined the role of serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genes in explaining differences in sensitive parenting in a community sample of 159 Caucasian, middle-class mothers with their 2-year-old toddlers at risk for externalizing behavior problems, taking into account maternal educational level, maternal depression and the quality of the marital relationship. Independent genetic effects of 5-HTTLPR SCL6A4 and OXTR rs53576 on observed maternal sensitivity were found. Controlling for differences in maternal education, depression and marital discord, parents with the possibly less efficient variants of the serotonergic (5-HTT ss) and oxytonergic (AA/AG) system genes showed lower levels of sensitive responsiveness to their toddlers. Two-way and three-way interactions with marital discord or depression were not significant. This first study on the role of both OXTR and 5-HTT genes in human parenting points to molecular genetic differences that may be implicated in the production of oxytocin explaining differences in sensitive parenting.

Abstract Variability in attention towards direct gaze and child-directed speech may contribute to heterogeneity of clinical presentation in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). To evaluate this hypothesis, we clustered sixty-five 20-month-old toddlers with ASD based on their visual responses to dyadic cues for engagement, identifying three subgroups. Subsequently, we compared social, language, and adaptive functioning of these subgroups at 30002years of age. The cluster displaying limited attention to social scenes in general exhibited poor outcome at 30002years; the cluster displaying good attention to the scene and to the speaker's mouth was verbal and high functioning at 30002years. Analysis of visual responses to dyadic cues may provide a clinically meaningful approach to identifying early predictors of outcome.

The ability to spontaneously attend to the social overtures and activities of others is essential for the development of social cognition and communication. This ability is critically impaired in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, it is not clear if prodromal symptoms in this area are already present in the first year of life of those affected by the disorder. To examine whether 6-month-old infants later diagnosed with ASD exhibit atypical spontaneous social monitoring skills, visual responses of 67 infants at high-risk and 50 at low-risk for ASD were studied using an eye-tracking task. Based on their clinical presentation in the third year, infants were divided into those with ASD, those exhibiting atypical development, and those developing typically. Compared with the control groups, 6-month-old infants later diagnosed with ASD attended less to the social scene, and when they did look at the scene, they spent less time monitoring the actress in general and her face in particular. Limited attention to the actress and her activities was not accompanied by enhanced attention to objects. Prodromal symptoms of ASD at 6 months include a diminished ability to attend spontaneously to people and their activities. A limited attentional bias toward people early in development is likely to have a detrimental impact on the specialization of social brain networks and the emergence of social interaction patterns. Further investigation into its underlying mechanisms and role in psychopathology of ASD in the first year is warranted.

Empathy has been associated with decreased antisocial and increased prosocial behavior. This study examined empathy and prosocial behavior in response to sadness and distress in disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Six- and 7-year-old children with DBD (with and without ADHD) ( n 02=0267) and with ADHD only ( n 02=0227) were compared to typically developing children (TD) ( n 02=0237). Parents and teachers rated affective empathy in response to sadness and distress on the Griffith Empathy Measure. Children reported affective empathic ability in response to sad story vignettes. Empathy-induced prosocial behavior in response to sadness and distress was assessed with a computer task, the Interpersonal Response Task (IRT). Compared to TD, children with DBD (with and without ADHD) and those with ADHD only were rated as less empathic by their teachers, but not by their parents. No differences between groups were observed in children who reported affect correspondence. Children with DBD (with and without ADHD) showed less prosocial behavior in response to sadness and distress compared to TD. Children with ADHD only did not differ from TD. An additional analysis comparing all children with a diagnosis to the TD group revealed that the difference in prosocial behavior remained after controlling for ADHD symptoms, but not after controlling for DBD symptoms. These findings of impaired empathy-induced prosocial behavior in response to sadness and distress in young children with DBD suggest that interventions to ameliorate peer relationships may benefit from targeting on increasing prosocial behavior in these children.

Initiating joint attention (IJA), the behavioral instigation of coordinated focus of 2 people on an object, emerges over the first 2 years of life and supports social-communicative functioning related to the healthy development of aspects of language, empathy, and theory of mind. Deficits in IJA provide strong early indicators for autism spectrum disorder, and therapies targeting joint attention have shown tremendous promise. However, the brain systems underlying IJA in early childhood are poorly understood, due in part to significant methodological challenges in imaging localized brain function that supports social behaviors during the first 2 years of life. Herein, we show that the functional organization of the brain is intimately related to the emergence of IJA using functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging and dimensional behavioral assessments in a large semilongitudinal cohort of infants and toddlers. In particular, though functional connections spanning the brain are involved in IJA, the strongest brain-behavior associations cluster within connections between a small subset of functional brain networks; namely between the visual network and dorsal attention network and between the visual network and posterior cingulate aspects of the default mode network. These observations mark the earliest known description of how functional brain systems underlie a burgeoning fundamental social behavior, may help improve the design of targeted therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders, and, more generally, elucidate physiological mechanisms essential to healthy social behavior development.

Joint Attention is the first step to build communication. Hence, its study is of great interest due to its influence on cognitive, social, emotional, and language development. This article presents a review of the research on the emergence and development of Joint Attention in infancy, highlighting the major points of discussion on this topic. We begin by examining the concept of intentionality in the definition of Joint Attention, followed by a description of the sequence of development of this capacity. We finish relating joint attention to language development and suggesting directions that can guide ulterior research in the field.

The objective was to examine whether a common polymorphism in the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) might be a potential biomarker for behavioral variation within the autism spectrum disorder clinical phenotype. Children (N = 66) were evaluated with a validated mother- and teacher-completed DSM-IV-referenced rating scale. Partial eta-squared (ηp2) was used to gauge the magnitude of group differences: 0.01610.06 = small, 0.06610.14 = moderate and > 0.14 = large. Children who were 7-repeat allele carriers had more severe oppositional defiant disorder behaviors according to mothers’ (ηp2 = 0.10) and teachers’ (ηp2 = 0.06) ratings than noncarriers, but the latter was marginally significant (P = 0.07). Children who were 7-repeat allele carriers also obtained more severe maternal ratings of tics (ηp2 = 0.07) and obsessions–compulsions (ηp2 = 0.08). Findings for maternal ratings of separation anxiety were marginally significant (P = 0.08, ηp2 = 0.05). Analyses of combined DRD4 and dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) genotypes approached significance (P = 0.05) for teachers’ ratings of oppositional behavior and mothers’ ratings of tics. DRD4 allelic variation may be a prognostic biomarker for challenging behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder, but these exploratory findings remain tentative pending replication with larger independent samples.

Infants at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have difficulty integrating smiles into initiating joint attention (IJA) bids. A specific IJA pattern, anticipatory smiling, may communicate preexisting positive affect when an infant smiles at an object and then turns the smile toward the social partner. We compared the development of anticipatory smiling at 8, 10, and 12 months in infant siblings of children with ASD (high-risk siblings) and without ASD (low-risk siblings). High-risk siblings produced less anticipatory smiling than low-risk siblings, suggesting early differences in communicating preexisting positive affect. While early anticipatory smiling distinguished the risk groups, IJA not accompanied by smiling best predicted later severity of ASD-related behavioral characteristics among high-risk siblings. High-risk infants appear to show lower levels of motivation to share positive affect with others. However, facility with initiating joint attention in the absence of a clear index of positive affective motivation appears to be central to the prediction of ASD symptoms.

Abstract Newborns cry in response to another newborn cry and researchers agree that these are the very early signs of empathy development. Yet, little is known about the development of these affect sharing reactions in infancy, beyond the very first few days after birth. The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of contagious cry phenomenon in infancy. Infants aged 1-, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old were presented with the sound of another infant cry vocalizations. Their emotional reactions were recorded in terms of vocal (presence of vocal distress, latency, and intensity) and facial (anger and sadness) expressions of emotions. Results show that during the presentation of a pain cry sound, 1, 3, 6, and 9 months old infants manifest increased vocal and facial expressions of distress. These affect sharing reactions do not decrease with age. Both boys and girls manifest similar levels of contagious crying reactions. The results are discussed in terms of early empathy development. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study evaluated The Transporters , an animated series designed to enhance emotion comprehension in children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). n 02=0220 children with ASC (aged 4–7) watched The Transporters everyday for 402weeks. Participants were tested before and after intervention on emotional vocabulary and emotion recognition at three levels of generalization. Two matched control groups of children (ASC group, n 02=0218 and typically developing group, n 02=0218) were also assessed twice without any intervention. The intervention group improved significantly more than the clinical control group on all task levels, performing comparably to typical controls at Time 2. We conclude that using The Transporters significantly improves emotion recognition in children with ASC. Future research should evaluate the series’ effectiveness with lower-functioning individuals.

Humans with seven or more repeats in exon III of the DRD4 gene (long DRD4 carriers) sometimes demonstrate impaired attention, as seen in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and at other times demonstrate heightened attention, as seen in addictive behavior. Although the clinical effects of DRD4 are the focus of much work, this gene may not necessarily serve as a "risk" gene for attentional deficits, but as a plasticity gene where attention is heightened for priority items in the environment and impaired for minor items. Here we examine the role of DRD4 in two tasks that benefit from selective attention to high-priority information. We examine a category learning task where performance is supported by focusing on features and updating verbal rules. Here, selective attention to the most salient features is associated with good performance. In addition, we examine the Operation Span (OSPAN) task, a working memory capacity task that relies on selective attention to update and maintain items in memory while also performing a secondary task. Long DRD4 carriers show superior performance relative to short DRD4 homozygotes (six or less tandem repeats) in both the category learning and OSPAN tasks. These results suggest that DRD4 may serve as a "plasticity" gene where individuals with the long allele show heightened selective attention to high-priority items in the environment, which can be beneficial in the appropriate context.

Infants’ pointing and concurrent vocalizing were examined in naturalistic interactions. Validating experimental findings of infants’ flexible vocalizing while pointing, infants vocalized more while pointing when parents were not already attending to where infants were pointing and when parents did not respond sensitively. 78 Twelve-month-old infants and parents were observed in naturalistic interactions. 78 We documented pointing and concurrent vocalizing by infants. 78 We compared pointing with vocalizing relative to parents’ attention and responses. 78 Infants vocalized while pointing when parents were not attending. 78 Infants vocalized while pointing when parents did not respond sensitively.

Tendency to mimic others emotional facial expressions predicts empathy and may represent a physiological marker of psychopathy. Anatomical connectivity between amygdala, cingulate motor cortex (M3, M4), and facial nucleus demonstrates a potential neuroanatomical substrate for mimicry, though pharmacological influences are largely unknown. Norepinephrine modulation selectively impairs negative emotion recognition, reflecting a potential role in processing empathy-eliciting facial expressions. We examined effects of single doses of propranolol (beta-adrenoceptor blocker) and reboxetine (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) on automatic facial mimicry of sadness, anger, and happiness, and the relationship between mimicry and empathy. Forty-five healthy volunteers were randomized to 40 mg propranolol or 4 mg reboxetine. Two hours after drug subjects viewed and rated facial expressions of sadness, anger, and happiness, while corrugator, zygomatic, and mentalis EMG were recorded. Trait emotional empathy was measured using the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale. EMG confirmed emotion-specific mimicry and the relationship between corrugator mimicry and empathy. Norepinephrine modulation did not alter mimicry to any expression or influence the relationship between mimicry and empathy. Corrugator but not zygomaticus mimicry predicts trait empathy, consistent with greater anatomical connectivity between amygdala and M3 coding upper facial muscle representations. Although influencing emotion perception, norepinephrine does not influence emotional facial mimicry or its relationship with trait empathy.

Author information: (1)Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, Center for Autism Research & Treatment, Semel Institute of Neuroscience & Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA. thutman@mednet.ucla.edu

While a growing body of research has identified experiential factors associated with differences in selective attention, relatively little is known about the contribution of genetic factors to the skill of sustained selective attention, especially in early childhood. Here, we assessed the association between the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genotypes and the neural mechanisms of selective attention in young children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a dichotic listening task from 121 children (76 females, aged 40-67 months), who were also genotyped for the short and long allele of 5-HTTLPR. The effect of selective attention was measured as the difference in ERP mean amplitudes elicited by identical probe stimuli embedded in stories when they were attended versus unattended. Compared to children homozygous for the long allele, children who carried at least one copy of the short allele showed larger effects of selective attention on neural processing. These findings link the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR to enhanced neural mechanisms of selective attention and lay the groundwork for future studies of gene-by-environment interactions in the context of key cognitive skills.

Although prior studies have demonstrated reduced resting state EEG coherence in adults with (), no studies have explored the nature of EEG coherence during joint attention. We examined the EEG coherence of the joint attention network in adolescents with and without during congruent and incongruent joint attention perception and an eyes-open resting condition. Across conditions, adolescents with showed reduced right hemisphere temporal-central alpha coherence compared to typically developing adolescents. Greater right temporal-central alpha coherence during joint attention was positively associated with social cognitive performance in typical development but not in . These results suggest that, in addition to a resting state, EEG coherence during joint attention perception is reduced in .

61A significant fraction of ASD probands exhibits platelet hyperserotonemia.61Significant effect of SLC6A4 markers on platelet 5-HT level61Genetic association study reveals gender bias effect in males.61SLC6A4 markers regulate specific behavioral symptoms in ASD.

There is substantial imaging evidence for volumetric abnormalities of the amygdala in younger children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The amygdala can be divided into functionally distinct laterobasal, superficial, and centromedial subregions. To date, we are not aware of any in vivo reports specifically assessing subregional amygdalar abnormalities in individuals with ASD. To evaluate alterations in subregional amygdalar morphology in children with ASD compared with typically developing (TD) children and to examine the relationships with ASD symptom severity. A cross-sectional study encompassing a narrow age range of children with ASD and age-matched TD children that evaluated magnetic resonance imaging-defined subregional morphology of the amygdala using a novel subregional analytic method. Participants were recruited and clinically evaluated through the University of Washington Autism Center and imaged at the Diagnostic Imaging Sciences Center at the University of Washington. Imaging data were analyzed through the Brain Imaging Laboratory at the Seoul National University. Fifty-one children 6 to 7 years of age (ASD, n = 31 and TD, n = 20) were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral measures. Volume and subregional measures of the amygdala and measures of social and communication functioning. The ASD group exhibited larger right and left amygdalae, by 12.7% and 11.0%, respectively, relative to the TD group. Subregional analysis revealed that the ASD group had enlarged laterobasal amygdalar subregions, relative to the TD group, after adjusting for age, sex, and hemispheric cerebral volume (P < .05, false discovery rate corrected and with clustered surface points >15). Exploratory analyses revealed that there were linear trends comparing a strictly defined subgroup of children with autistic disorder, who exhibited the greatest extent of laterobasal enlargement, followed by a subgroup of children with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified and then the group of TD children (P for linear trend <.001). There were linear trends between enlargement of laterobasal subregions and lower levels of social and communication functioning (P < .001, P < .001, and P = .001 for 3 areas in the right laterobasal subregion; P < .001 for 1 area in the left laterobasal subregion). The current study demonstrates bilateral enlargement of laterobasal subregions of the amygdala in 6- to 7-year-old children with ASD and that subregional alterations are associated with deficits in social and communicative behavior.

Abstract Neuropeptides such as oxytocin (OXT) are known facilitators of social behavior across species. Variants of the OXT receptor gene (OXTR) have been tested for association with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across manifold ethnicities, yielding both positive and negative findings. A recent meta-analysis, comprising 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), has corroborated the implication of OXTR in the etiology of ASD. Here, we genotyped and tested two additional variants (rs237889 and rs237897) for association with ASD in two German predominantly high-functioning ASD samples. We found nominal over-transmission (OR090009=0900091.48, CI95090009=0900091.06-2.08, P090009=0900090.022) for the minor A allele of variant rs237889G>A in sample 1 (N090009=090009135 complete parent-offspring trios, 29 parent child duos), but not in sample 2 (362 trios, 69 duos). Still, in a meta-analysis comprising four different studies including the two unreported German data sets (N090009=090009542 families), this finding was confirmed (OR090009=0900091.12; CI95090009=0900091.01-1.24, random effects P090009=0900090.012). In addition, carriers of the minor risk allele rs237889-A showed significantly increased severity scores, as assessed through the autism diagnostic interview - revised (ADI-R), with highly significant increases in social interaction deficits. Our results corroborate the implication of common OXTR variants in the etiology of ASD. There is a need for functional studies to delineate the neurobiological implications of this and other association findings. (172/250). Autism Res 2016, 9: 1036-1045. 0008 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 0008 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We analyzed the roles of parenting style and peer attachment in predicting emotional instability in late childhood and early adolescence. Effects were analyzed separately by gender. Children's personal variables analyzed were empathy, anger, and the mechanisms used to cope with anger (externalization and self-control). Participants were 316 girls and 294 boys (= 610) aged from 9 to 12 years who were students at schools in Valencia, Spain. Main gender differences for each variable were examined using one-way ANOVAs. Results of 2 multiple linear regression analyses (1 for boys and 1 for girls) explained 50.9% and 35.5%, respectively, of variance in the students' emotional instability. Considering emotional and cognitive variables, the results for our participant group show that parenting styles and peer attachment were equally significant as predictors of emotional instability.

Abstract Previous imaging work has shown that the superior temporal sulcus (STS) region and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) are specifically activated during the passive observation of shifts in eye gaze [Pelphrey, K. A., Singerman, J. D., Allison, T., & McCarthy, G. Brain activation evoked by perception of gaze shifts: The influence of context. Neuropsychologia, 41, 156-170, 2003; Hoffman, E. A., & Haxby, J. V. Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 80-84, 2000; Puce, A., Allison, T., Bentin, S., Gore, J. C., & McCarthy, G. Temporal cortex activation in humans viewing eye and mouth movements. Journal of Neuroscience, 18, 2188-2199, 1998; Wicker, B., Michel, F., Henaff, M. A., & Decety, J. Brain regions involved in the perception of gaze: A PET study. Neuroimage, 8, 221-227, 1998]. Are the same brain regions also involved in extracting gaze direction in order to establish joint attention? In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, healthy human subjects actively followed the directional cue provided by the eyes of another person toward an object in space or, in the control condition, used a nondirectional symbolic cue to make an eye movement toward an object in space. Our results show that the posterior part of the STS region and the cuneus are specifically involved in extracting and using detailed directional information from the eyes of another person to redirect one's own gaze and establish joint attention. The IPS, on the other hand, seems to be involved in encoding spatial direction and mediating shifts of spatial attention independent of the type of cue that triggers this process.

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study investigated whether variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and early parent-child interactions predicted later empathic behavior in 84 toddlers at high or low familial risk for autism spectrum disorder. Two well-studied OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms, rs53576 and rs2254298, were examined. Parent-child interaction was measured at 15 and 18 months of age during free play sessions. Empathy was measured at 24 and 30 months using a response to parental distress paradigm. While there was no direct association between parent-child interaction quality or OXTR and empathy, rs53576 moderated the relation between interaction quality and empathy. Results suggest that the interplay between OXTR and early parent-child interactions predicts individual differences in empathy in children at varying risk for atypical social development. Findings are consonant with a differential susceptibility model in which an OXTR variant may increase the social salience of interaction processes for specific allele carriers. These results increase our understanding of predictors of empathy development in young children with a wide range of social outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record

Abstract Humans, infants and adults alike, automatically mimic a variety of behaviors. Such mimicry facilitates social functioning, including establishment of interpersonal rapport and understanding of other minds. This fundamental social process may thus be impaired in disorders such as autism characterized by socio-emotional and communicative deficits. We examined automatic and voluntary mimicry of emotional facial expression among adolescents and adults with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and a typical sample matched on age, gender and verbal intelligence. Participants viewed pictures of happy and angry expressions while the activity over their cheek and brow muscle region was monitored with electromyography (EMG). ASD participants did not automatically mimic facial expressions whereas the typically developing participants did. However, both groups showed evidence of successful voluntary mimicry. The data suggest that autism is associated with an impairment of a basic automatic social-emotion process. Results have implications for understanding typical and atypical social cognition.

This study examined the relationship between child language skills and parent and child gestures of 58 youths with and without an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Frequencies and rates of total gesture use as well as five categories of gestures (deictic, conventional, beat, iconic, and metaphoric) were reliably coded during the collaborative Tower of Hanoi task. Children with ASD had lower Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores and gestured less and at lower rates compared to typically developing children. Gesture use was unrelated to vocabulary for typically developing children, but positively associated with vocabulary for those with ASD. Demographic correlates of gesturing differed by group. Gesture may be a point of communication intervention for families with children with ASD.

@misc{5819721, articleno = {20133076}, author = { Morgan, MJ and Bass, D and Bik, H and Birky, CW and Blaxter, M and Crisp, MD and Derycke, Sofie and Fitch, D and Fontaneto, D and Hardy, CM and King, AJ and Kiontke, KC and Moens, Tom and Pawlowski, JW and Porazinska, D and Tang, CQ and Thomas, WK and Yeates, DK and Creer, S}, issn = {0962-8452}, keyword = {DIVERSITY,PROTOZOA,DISPERSAL,NEMATODA,BIODIVERSITY,TAXONOMY,COMPLEX}, language = {eng}, number = {1783}, pages = {4}, series = {PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES}, title = {A critique of Rossberg et al.: noise obscures the genetic signal of meiobiotal ecospecies in ecogenomic datasets}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3076}, volume = {281}, year = {2014}, }

Abstract Theory suggests that information processing during joint attention may be atypical in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This hypothesis was tested in a study of school-aged children with higher functioning ASD and groups of children with symptoms of ADHD or typical development. The results indicated that the control groups displayed significantly better recognition memory for pictures studied in an initiating joint attention (IJA) rather than responding to joint attention (RJA) condition. This effect was not evident in the ASD group. The ASD group also recognized fewer pictures from the IJA condition than controls, but not the RJA condition. Atypical information processing may be a marker of the continued effects of joint attention disturbance in school aged children with ASD.

We tend to like those who mimic us. In this study we formally test if mimicry changes the reward value of the mimicker, using gaze bias as a proxy for reward. Previous research has demonstrated that people show gaze bias towards more rewarding targets, suggesting that gaze bias can be considered a proxy for relative reward value. Forty adults participated in a conditioning task, where they were mimicked by one face and ‘anti-mimicked’ by another. Subsequently, they were found to show gaze-bias towards faces that mimicked them compared to those that did not, in a preferential looking task. The strength of this effect correlated positively with individual levels of trait empathy. In a separate, similar task, these participants showed a gaze bias for faces paired with high vs low monetary rewards, thus validating the use of gaze bias as a proxy for learnt reward. Together, these results demonstrate that mimicry changes the reward value of social stimuli, and empathy influences the extent of this change. This can potentially inform conditions marked by deficits in forming social bonds, such as Autism.

Joint attention (JA) and spontaneous facial mimicry (SFM) are fundamental processes in social interactions, and they are closely related to empathic abilities. When tested independently, both of these processes have been usually observed to be atypical in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). However, it is not known how these processes interact with each other in relation to autistic traits. This study addresses this question by testing the impact of JA on SFM of happy faces using a truly interactive paradigm. Sixty‐two neurotypical participants engaged in gaze‐based social interaction with an anthropomorphic, gaze‐contingent virtual agent. The agent either established JA by initiating eye contact or looked away, before looking at an object and expressing happiness or disgust. Eye tracking was used to make the agent's gaze behavior and facial actions contingent to the participants' gaze. SFM of happy expressions was measured by Electromyography (EMG) recording over the Zygomaticus Major muscle. Results showed that JA augments SFM in individuals with low compared with high autistic traits. These findings are in line with reports of reduced impact of JA on action imitation in individuals with ASC. Moreover, they suggest that investigating atypical interactions between empathic processes, instead of testing these processes individually, might be crucial to understanding the nature of social deficits in autism.Autism Res2016, 9: 781–789. 08 2015 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research

The authors examined the longitudinal relation between joint attention and socioemotional functioning in a low-risk, typically developing sample of children when the children were toddlers and again during the early school-age years. Fifty-eight mothers and their children were observed in the home or laboratory engaging in 1 unstructured and 4 semistructured tasks designed to assess joint attention episodes when the children were toddlers. Approximately 4 years later, the mother–child dyads were contacted again and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist as a measure of their children’s socioemotional outcome at the early school years. The authors found that lower frequencies of joint attention episodes at toddlerhood predicted higher internalizing behaviors at early school age. Preliminary findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for work on early mother–child interactions and children’s typical and atypical sociemotional development.

Oxytocin, vasopressin, and their receptor genes influence prosocial behavior in the laboratory and in the context of close relationships. These peptides may also promote social engagement following threat. However, the scope of their prosocial effects is unknown. We examined oxytocin receptor ( OXTR ) polymorphism rs53576, as well as vasopressin receptor 1a ( AVPR1a ) polymorphisms rs1 and rs3 in a national sample of U.S. residents ( n = 348). These polymorphisms interacted with perceived threat to predict engagement in volunteer work or charitable activities and commitment to civic duty. Specifically, greater perceived threat predicted engagement in fewer charitable activities for individuals with A/A and A/G genotypes of OXTR rs53576, but not for G/G individuals. Similarly, greater perceived threat predicted lower commitment to civic duty for individuals with one or two short alleles for AVPR1a rs1, but not for individuals with only long alleles. Oxytocin, vasopressin, and their receptor genes may significantly influence prosocial behavior and may lie at the core of the caregiving behavioral system.

Abstract Studies of the mirror neuron system can help know the causes of autism, a mental developmental disorder and help the researchers to find out a way to treat it. Studies of people with autism show a lack of mirror neuron activity in several regions of the brain. Mirror neurons may enable humans to see themselves as others see them, which may be an essential ability for self-awareness and introspection. The dysfunctional mirror neurons can create absence of empathy, language deficits, poor imitation, and many other disorders. The researchers have found mirror neuron deficits in children with autism by employing magnetoencephalography, which measures the magnetic fields produced by electric currents in the brain. Doctors could monitor the mu waves of a child with autism and display them on a screen in front of the patient. Specialized Neuromodulators may also enhance the activity of mirror neurons involved in emotional responses.

Both the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and depressive symptoms have been associated with parenting behaviour. The OXTR GG genotype has been suggested to be related to more sensitive parenting, whereas depressive symptoms may affect sensitivity negatively. We examined the role of OXTR and the influence of depressive symptoms in explaining differences in physiological reactivity to infant crying. Heart rate responses of 40 healthy females without children (age 1947 years, randomly selected half of twin pairs) were measured during the presentation of three episodes of infant cry sounds. Participants with the presumably more efficient variant of the oxytonergic system gene (OXTR GG) had more pronounced physiological reactivity to repeated cry sounds, except when they showed more symptoms of depression. Results were replicated in the second half of the twin sample. This is the first study to suggest effects of OXTR genotype on physiological reactivity to infant crying. Depressive symptoms may however suppress the effect of the OXTR GG genotype.

Oxytocin, a peptide that functions as both a hormone and neurotransmitter, has broad influences on social and emotional processing throughout the body and the brain. In this study, we tested how a polymorphism (rs53576) of the oxytocin receptor relates to two key social processes related to oxytocin: empathy and stress reactivity. Compared with individuals homozygous for the G allele of rs53576 (GG), individuals with one or two copies of the A allele (AG/AA) exhibited lower behavioral and dispositional empathy, as measured by the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test and an other-oriented empathy scale. Furthermore, AA/AG individuals displayed higher physiological and dispositional stress reactivity than GG individuals, as determined by heart rate response during a startle anticipation task and an affective reactivity scale. Our results provide evidence of how a naturally occurring genetic variation of the oxytocin receptor relates to both empathy and stress profiles.

Several lines of evidence implicate dysfunction of the serotonin (5-HT) system in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, the serotonin transporter (5-HTT, SERT) has been scrutinized as an ASD candidate risk gene. SERT plays key roles in the development of circuits that underlie sensory function, particularly in the somatosensory system. One previous study in ASD found association of a rare, hyperfunctional SERT variant with sensory aversion, but studies of common SERT variants have never examined sensory symptoms in ASD. Using standardized caregiver assessments of sensory function in children, we evaluated patterns of sensory responsiveness in 47 children with ASD and 38 typically developing (TD) children. Study participants were genotyped for the functional SERT promoter polymorphisms, 5-HTTLPR and rs25531, to test the hypothesis that the higher expressing genotypes would be associated with hyperresponsiveness to touch, a common sensory aversion in ASD. All measures of sensory hypo- and hyperresponsiveness were increased in children with ASD, with hyporesponsive sensory patterns negatively correlated to age and hyperresponsive sensory patterns positively correlated to repetitive behavior. Strikingly, high-expressing SERT genotypes were associated with increased tactile hyperresponsiveness in the ASD group. Our findings indicate genetic variation that increases SERT function may specifically impact somatosensory processing in ASD.

Social neuro-science has recently started to investigate the neuronal mechanisms underlying our ability to understand the mental and emotional states of others. In this review, imaging research conducted on theory of mind (ToM or mentalizing) and empathy is selectively reviewed. It is proposed that even though these abilities are often used as synonyms in the literature these capacities represent different abilities that rely on different neuronal circuitry. ToM refers to our ability to understand mental states such as intentions, goals and beliefs, and relies on structures of the temporal lobe and the pre-frontal cortex. In contrast, empathy refers to our ability to share the feelings (emotions and sensations) of others and relies on sensorimotor cortices as well as limbic and para-limbic structures. It is further argued that the concept of empathy as used in lay terms refers to a multi-level construct extending from simple forms of emotion contagion to complex forms of cognitive perspective taking. Future research should investigate the relative contribution of empathizing and mentalizing abilities in the understanding of other people's states. Finally, it is suggested that the abilities to understand other people's thoughts and to share their affects display different ontogenetic trajectories reflecting the different developmental paths of their underlying neural structures. In particular, empathy develops much earlier than mentalizing abilities, because the former relys on limbic structures which develop early in ontogeny, whereas the latter rely on lateral temporal lobe and pre-frontal structures which are among the last to fully mature.

This study focused on the predictive contributions of infants' temperamental negative emotionality (proneness to fear, anger), sex, maternal responsivity, and their interaction on toddlers' empathy-related responding to distress in 3 contexts. Ninety-eight infants and their mothers participated in a longitudinal study. When the infants were 10 months of age, mothers completed assessments of infant temperamental anger and fear, and maternal behaviors were observed in a free-play setting. At 18 months of age, toddlers' empathy-related responding to the distress of a stranger, a crying baby doll, and the mother was assessed. A series of hierarchical and logistic regressions were performed, and results indicated that infant fear predicted higher concerned awareness toward adults and higher personal distress reactions toward the mother. In addition, maternal responsivity predicted higher concerned attention and lower personal distress reactions toward the baby doll and mother. Findings also revealed several interaction effects to predict toddlers' empathy-related responding to distress.

Symptom severity and adaptive functioning are fundamental domains of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) phenotype. To date, the longitudinal association between these 2 domains has not been examined. To describe the developmental trajectories of autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning in a large inception cohort of preschool children with ASD. The sample consisted of 421 newly diagnosed preschool children with ASD 2 to 4 years old (355 boys; mean age at study enrollment, 39.87 months) participating in a large Canadian multisite longitudinal study (Pathways in ASD Study). Prospective data collected at 4 points from time of diagnosis to age 6 years were used to track the developmental trajectories of children. Autistic symptom severity was indexed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. Adaptive functioning was indexed using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition. Two distinct trajectory groups provided the best fit to the autistic symptom severity data. Group 1 (11.4% of the sample) had less severe symptoms and an improving trajectory (P65<65.05), whereas group 2 (88.6% of the sample) had more severe symptoms and a stable trajectory. Three distinct trajectory groups provided the best fit to the adaptive functioning data. Group 1 (29.2% of the sample) showed lower functioning and a worsening trajectory, group 2 (49.9% of the sample) had moderate functioning and a stable trajectory, and group 3 (20.9% of the sample) had higher functioning and an improving trajectory (P65<65.05). Cross-trajectory overlap between the autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning groups was low (φ65=650.13, P65<65.05). Sex was a significant predictor of autistic symptom severity group membership and age at diagnosis, and language and cognitive scores at baseline predicted membership in adaptive functioning trajectories. Trajectories of both symptom severity and adaptive functioning predicted several different outcomes at age 6 years. Findings confirm the heterogeneous nature of developmental trajectories in ASD. Change in adaptive functioning suggests that improvement is possible in roughly 20% of the sample. Autistic symptom severity appears to be more stable, with roughly 11% of the sample showing a marked decrease in symptom severity. During the preschool years, there appears to be only a small amount of "yoking" of developmental trajectories in autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning. It is imperative that a flexible suite of interventions that target both autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning should be implemented and tailored to each child's strengths and difficulties.

61White matter structures associated with empathizing/systemizing and the D score61Empathizing's positive correlates included the key nodes of the default mode network.61They also included the key nodes of the mirror neuron system.61Those of systemizing included the key nodes of the external attention system.

In this research, the emotion recognition abilities of children with and typically developing children were compared. When facial expressions and situational cues of emotion were congruent, accuracy in recognizing emotions was good for both children with and typically developing children. When presented with facial expressions incongruent with situational cues, children with relied more on facial cues than situational cues, whereas typically developing children relied more on situational cues. The exception was fear. When presented with incongruent information (i.e. a smiling boy surrounded by a swarm of ), most children based their response on the situation and indicated that the boy felt scared. While the majority of typically developing children commented on the disparity between facial expressions and situational cues, children with did not mention the conflicting cues. Although typically developing children were more accurate in recognizing emotion with situational cues, children with were still adequate at identifying emotion from situational cues alone. These findings suggest that children with show an understanding of simple emotions in prototypical situations, but may prefer facial expressions when facial expressions and situational cues are incongruent. Reasons for these findings are discussed.

The ability to follow gaze is an important prerequisite for joint attention, which is often compromised in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The direction of both the head and eyes provides cues to other people attention direction, but previous studies have not separated these factors and their relation to ASD susceptibility. Development of gaze following typically occurs before ASD diagnosis is possible, and studies of high-risk populations are therefore important. Eye tracking was used to assess gaze following during interaction in a group of 10-month-old infants at high familial risk for ASD (high-risk group) as well as a group of infants with no family history of ASD (low-risk group). The infants watched an experimenter gaze at objects in the periphery. Performance was compared across two conditions: one in which the experimenter moved both the eyes and head toward the objects (Eyes and Head condition) and one that involved movement of the eyes only (Eyes Only condition). A group by condition interaction effect was found. Specifically, whereas gaze following accuracy was comparable across the two conditions in the low-risk group, infants in the high-risk group were more likely to follow gaze in the Eyes and Head condition than in the Eyes Only condition. In an ecologically valid social situation, responses to basic non-verbal orienting cues were found to be altered in infants at risk for ASD. The results indicate that infants at risk for ASD may rely disproportionally on information from the head when following gaze and point to the importance of separating information from the eyes and the head when studying social perception in ASD. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13229-016-0069-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The evolutionarily highly conserved neuropeptide oxytocin is a key mediator of social and emotional behavior in mammals, including humans. A common variant (rs53576) in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) has been implicated in social-behavioral phenotypes, such as maternal sensitivity and empathy, and with neuropsychiatric disorders associated with social impairment, but the intermediate neural mechanisms are unknown. Here, we used multimodal neuroimaging in a large sample of healthy human subjects to identify structural and functional alterations in OXTR risk allele carriers and their link to temperament. Activation and interregional coupling of the amygdala during the processing of emotionally salient social cues was significantly affected by genotype. In addition, evidence for structural alterations in key oxytocinergic regions emerged, particularly in the hypothalamus. These neural characteristics predicted lower levels of reward dependence, specifically in male risk allele carriers. Our findings identify sex-dependent mechanisms impacting the structure and function of hypothalamic-limbic circuits that are of potential clinical and translational significance.

Abstract Guided by the heuristic model proposed by Eisenberg et al. [Psychol. Inq. 9 (1998) 241], we examined the relations of mothers' reported and observed negative expressivity to children's (N = 159; 74 girls; M age = 7.67 years) experience and expression of emotion. Children's experience and/or expression of emotion in response to a distressing film were measured with facial, heart rate, and self-report measures. Children's heart rate and facial distress were modestly positively related. Children's facial distress was significantly positively related to mothers' reports of negative (dominant and submissive) expressivity; the positive relation between children's facial distress and mothers' observed negative expressivity approached the conventional level of significance. Moreover, mothers' observed negative expressivity was significantly negatively related to children's heart rate reactivity during the conflict film. The positive relation between children's reported distress and mothers' observed negative expressivity approached the conventional level of significance. Several possible explanations for the pattern of findings are discussed.

Abstract At 18 months, children engage in a variety of social behaviors that reflect their nascent ability to understand the intentions of other people (e.g. joint attention, empathy, cooperation and self-recognition). Although numerous contextual factors have been shown to predict social cognition in young children, the genetic underpinnings of social-cognitive traits has been understudied in this age group. Owing to the known effects of oxytocin on adult social cognition and psychopathology, this study hypothesized that variability in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) would be associated with social cognition in children at 18 months. Participants consisted of 350 children (182 males; 168 females) who were part of an ongoing longitudinal study that aimed to assess environmental and genetic contributions to children's cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. At 18 months, social cognition was measured using previously validated and developmentally sensitive tasks assessing children's joint attention, empathy, cooperation and self-recognition. Five potentially functional OXTR variants were genotyped: rs1042778, rs2254298, rs11131149, rs237897 and rs237899. A family-based association design was used to control for population admixture and stratification, and additional non-genomic covariates were controlled. Results showed that variability in rs11131149 was significantly associated with social cognition (P=0.009), with more copies of the major allele related to higher social cognition, and more copies of the minor (risk) allele associated with lower social cognition. A haplotype consisting of rs11131149-rs2254298 was also associated with social cognition (P=0.020). Implications for normative and pathological development are discussed, and key areas for future research are proposed. 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Abstract There has recently been interest in the ways in which coordinated movements encourage coactors to feel socially closer to one another, but this has generally overlooked the importance of necessary precursors to this joint action. Here we target two low-level behaviours involved in social coordination that may mediate a relationship between joint actions and social bonding, namely joint attention and shared goals. Participants engaged in a simple reaction time task while sitting next to a partner performing the same task. In a joint attention condition, both participants attended to stimuli presented on the same half of a computer screen, while in a control condition, they attended to opposite sides of the computer screen. Shared goals were manipulated by giving participants the instruction to keep below a threshold score for both individual response times and accuracy (individual goal), or their joint mean response time and accuracy (i.e., averaging their mean response time and accuracy with that of their partner: shared goal). Attending to the same side of the screen led to higher ratings on a composite social bonding index directed towards a partner, while shared goals did not cause any effects on partner ratings. Joint attention was sufficient to encourage social closeness with an interaction partner, which suggests that any activities which encourage attending to the same point in space could have some influence on how connected coactors feel about one another. 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Abstract BACKGROUND: Oxytocin exerts well accepted effects on one of the key social processes: empathy. Previous researches have demonstrated that oxytocin promotes emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy, by exogenous administration as well as on gene level. However, the effect of diverse gene locus haplotypes of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) on trait empathy lacks reliable evidence. METHODS: Participants consisted of 101 genetically unrelated, non-clinical Chinese subjects (46 males and 55 females). Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was applied to measure the trait empathy from four dimensions: empathy concern, personal distress, perspective taking and fantasy. Fantasy and perspective taking measured cognitive aspect of empathy, while empathy concern and personal distress measured emotional aspect of empathy. Ten single tagging SNPs on OXTR rs2268491, rs1042778, rs53576, rs7632287, rs2254298, rs13316193, rs237897, rs237887, rs4686302, and rs2268493 were tested. RESULTS: Genotype difference in emotional empathy was found on rs237887 and rs4686302 whereas cognitive empathy varied on SNPs rs2268491 and rs2254298 between homozygous and variant carriers. For IRI score, there is a genotype and gender interaction on rs4686302 and rs13316193. LIMITATION: The sample sizes from the current study were not so optimal that these results should have to be interpreted with caution when amplified into a larger population. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that natural variants of OXTR associated with trait empathy; specifically, individuals with certain OXTR genotype did perform better on trait empathy, while others did not. Our findings also provide genetic evidence for gender-related difference on empathy, indicating the popular fact that females who displayed more empathy than males could be likely to trace back to the genetic variants. Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Existing studies have observed a robust relationship between infants' pointing gestures and language outcomes. By contrast, infants' overall vocal production is not related to language outcomes. One possible explanation for the association between pointing and language is that pointing gestures, as compared to vocalizations, may elicit more verbal responses from social partners that are facilitative for language learning. To test this, we observed forty-seven infants aged 1;0 during free play with their mothers and fathers separately to compare parents' verbal responses to infants' pointing gestures and object-directed vocalizations. Results showed that, compared to object-directed vocalizations, infants' pointing elicited more verbal responses from parents, particularly object labels. Moreover, mothers were more likely than fathers to provide labels. These results may help explain why pointing is associated with indices of language acquisition, but the production of vocalizations is not.

Joint attention has been suggested to contribute to children's development of cooperation; however, few empirical studies have directly tested this hypothesis. Children aged 1 and 2 years participated in two joint action activities to assess their cooperation with an adult partner, who stopped participating at a specific moment during the tasks. Children's joint attention skills were measured by the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). Results showed that children's responding to joint attention ability contributed to their successful cooperation in an activity that required parallel roles, whereas initiating joint attention ability contributed to their successful cooperation in an activity that required complementary roles. These results suggest a complex relationship between joint attention and cooperative abilities when considering RJA and IJA separately.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder, characterized by impairments in one's capacity for joint attention. In this study, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) wa ...