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Differing Developmental Trajectories in Heart Rate Responses to Speech Stimuli in Infants at High and Low Risk for

Katherine L Perdue1, Laura A Edwards2, Helen Tager-Flusberg3

  • 1Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1 Autumn St., 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Katherine.Perdue@childrens.harvard.edu.

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
|May 19, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Infants at high familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show altered heart rate (HR) responses to speech. These findings suggest reduced social orienting in high-risk infants during the first year of life.

Area of Science:

  • Neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Infant psychology
  • Physiological responses

Background:

  • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk is associated with early developmental differences.
  • Understanding early physiological markers may aid in identifying ASD risk.
  • Heart rate (HR) responses to stimuli can reflect attentional and orienting behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate heart rate (HR) patterns in infants with high (HRA) and low (LRC) familial risk for ASD.
  • To identify potential endophenotypes of ASD risk related to attentional responses to speech.
  • To examine developmental trajectories of HR responses in the first year of life.

Main Methods:

  • Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record HR in infants at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.
  • Infants listened to speech stimuli during fNIRS recordings.
  • Longitudinal analysis compared HR responses between HRA and LRC infants, and between sexes.

Main Results:

  • High familial risk for ASD (HRA) infants and males exhibited lower baseline HR compared to LRC infants and females.
  • HRA infants demonstrated decreased HR responses to speech stimuli over developmental time.
  • LRC infants showed increased HR responses to speech stimuli over developmental time.

Conclusions:

  • Altered developmental trajectories in physiological responses to speech are present in the first year of life for infants at high risk for ASD.
  • HRA infants display reduced social orienting over time, indicated by blunted HR responses.
  • HR reactivity to speech may serve as an early endophenotype for ASD risk.

Keywords:
Auditory processingAutism spectrum disordersEndophenotypeHeart rateInfancy

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