One of the prominent clinical applications of the discovery of mirror neurons has been to explore howimpairments in the mirror neuron system (MNS) might provide a mechanistic account for some of the core socialcommunicative symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The evidence for impairments in the MNS in ASDis conflicting, however there are significant gaps in the evidence and methodological limitations in the publishedstudies. The proposed project addresses these limitations by building directly on the theoretical andmethodological accomplishments of the other projects in this program project. We propose to investigate theMNS in 160 toddlers and preschoolers soon after they have been diagnosed with ASD (aged 24-42 months),and more specifically to explore the MNS in the context of a training study. This design will allow us to test thehypotheses that the onset of ASD is associated with an underlying systems-level impairment in the MNS and,furthermore, that targeted training leads to changes in MNS activity at the neural and behavioral levels. Theproject will address two specific aims. Aim #1: To explore the relations among behavioral andneuroimaging measures of the MNS in a large group of toddlers and preschoolers with ASD aged 24-42months. The measures will include a battery of behavioral tasks tapping a range of behaviors associated withthe MNS (from action prediction, to joint attention, instrumental helping and imitation). In addition we will collectEEG data on mu event-related desynchronization (mu ERD) and additional novel EEG measures in a variety ofcontexts. Analyses of these data will focus on identifying clusters of children with distinct profiles on thesemeasures to be assessed with particular focus on links between behavioral and neural measures using latentclass analytic approaches. Aim #2: To compare, in a randomized controlled design, the efficacy of twodifferent targeted training paradigms on changes to behavioral and neural measures of the MNS. Thechildren enrolled in the projectwill be randomized to one of two brief training protocols: (1) training to point; (2)training in object play. We predict that the pointing training, which is directly linked to joint attention and theMNS, will lead to more significant changes in mu ERD as well as on behavioral measures related to the MNS.We will also investigate whether there are reliable neural and behavioral predictors of response to both types oftraining that will help to develop a more personalized approach to planning early behavioral interventions foryoung children with ASD. The findings from these studies will address the controversial question of whetherdeficits in the MNS underlie the early manifestations of ASD, in at least in some children. If the intervention issuccessful, the findings will also provide the first evidence for the neural mechanisms that underlie one keycomponent of early intervention that is known to be effective for many children with ASD.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
