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Project

Understanding dysfunctional socio-communicative and socio-emotional development in preterm infants with fast periodic visual stimulation

Humans are social beings par excellence, in infancy and throughout development. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social communication and interaction, including difficulties processing faces and using eye contact. Likewise, children born very prematurely often show dysfunctional socio-emotional development, and a substantial proportion develops ASD. To date, no objective quantitative marker exists for the (early) assessment of sociocommunicative and socio-emotional impairments and/or ASD. Here, we will introduce the fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) approach to assess the implicit processing of sociocommunicative facial cues in a large cohort of preterm and full-term infants that we follow up through childhood. This highly versatile EEG technique offers an objective, quantifiable and robust neural index of socio-communicative sensitivity and socio-emotional vulnerability within a few minutes of time. Developmental pathways will be compared for preterm versus full-term infants, and (retrospectively) for infants developing socio-emotional problems and/or ASD versus typically developing infants. EEG findings on socio-communicative and socio-emotional development will be interpreted against the background of longitudinal measures assessing prenatal and perinatal stress of the infants and parents, hormonal levels and epigenetic modifications, and bonding and attachment processes.

Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:Dysfunctional development, Preterm infants, Fast periodical stimulation
Disciplines:Parenting and family education, Specialist studies in education