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A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
Published on: May 3, 2017
Early infant behavioural correlates of social skills in adolescents
Jessica R Shoaff1,2, Kevin Nugent3,4, Thomas Berry Brazelton3,4
1Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Insights
Infant behaviors assessed by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) can predict later autism spectrum disorder (ASD) associated behaviors. Early detection of ASD risk is possible through newborn assessments.
Area of Science:
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Pediatric Psychology
- Infant Behavioral Science
Background:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed after age two, but early brain differences exist.
- Identifying early behavioral markers for ASD risk can improve early detection and intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between infant behaviors and adolescent behaviors linked to ASD.
- To determine if early infant assessments can predict later ASD-associated behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the New Bedford Cohort (370 participants).
- Assessed infant behaviors at ~2 weeks using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS).
- Evaluated adolescent ASD-associated behaviors at ~15 years using the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2 TRS).
Main Results:
- Poorer NBAS performance correlated with increased adolescent ASD-associated behaviors.
- Neonatal self-regulation, auditory response, and autonomic regulation showed the strongest associations.
- Infants with the lowest NBAS Regulation of State scores had significantly higher adolescent ASD-associated behavior scores.
Conclusions:
- The NBAS is a valuable tool for assessing developmental risk in newborns.
- NBAS can aid in identifying infants at risk for ASD-associated behaviors, facilitating early intervention.
Background:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically diagnosed after the second year of life; however, differences in brain structure and function associated with ASD have been ascertained in early infancy. Identifying behavioural markers of ASD risk in early infancy has the potential to facilitate early detection and intervention.
Objectives:
We examined associations between infant behaviour and adolescent behaviours associated with ASD.
Methods:
Analyses leveraged data available on 370 participants from the New Bedford Cohort, a sociodemographically diverse prospective birth cohort of children born from 1993 to 1998 to mothers residing near the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site in Massachusetts. Longitudinal assessments were used to examine the associations between behaviours when children were approximately 2 weeks old (measured by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale [NBAS]), and subsequent maladaptive behaviours associated with ASD at approximately 15 years old [measured by the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition-Teacher Rating Scale (BASC-2 TRS) scores which are standardised to a mean (SD) of 50 (10)].
Results:
Poorer performance on select individual items and cluster scales of the NBAS was associated with an increase in behaviours associated with ASD in adolescents. Associations were strongest for neonatal measures of self-regulation, response to auditory input, and autonomic nervous system regulation. For example, in covariate-adjusted models, infants with Regulation of State NBAS cluster scores in the lowest tertile (poorest performance) compared to infants with scores in the higher two tertiles had adolescent BASC-2 TRS Developmental Social Disorders T-scores that were 2.9 points higher (95% CI: 0.8, 4.9), indicating more behaviours associated with ASD.
Conclusion:
The NBAS is an established and accessible instrument that assesses a broad range of behaviours in very young infants, and may be a useful tool for newborn assessments of developmental risk, including risk of ASD-associated behaviours.
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