此篇文章轉錄自Medical News Today（點此連結）；文章主要論述：一、六個月大的自閉症高危險群嬰兒，在照顧者不主動互動時，會比六個月大的自閉症低危險群嬰兒，有較少的眼神注視；二、無論自閉症高危險群或低危險群嬰兒，在因果關係的聯結學習上並無差異。文中提及到兩個比較難理解的專有名詞：(1) Joint Attention（wiki連結），翻譯為「共享式注意力」，比較簡單地解釋請參照這個連結與圖片。其實，共享式注意力時常在我們生活之中，也是對自身非常習以為常的能力，譬如當你看到對方盯著你的背後，你就會轉過頭看是什麼（常被用來作為鬼片的情節），但自閉症患者卻缺乏這項能力。
(2)Associative Learning（wiki連結）：翻譯是「聯結學習」，最基本的就是帕夫洛夫的制約學習（Pavlov's conditioning），但文中，有提到因果（cause & effect），當然六個月大的嬰兒不可能做到複雜的因果推理，但意思指的是，嬰兒能否藉由自己操作物體而發現環境中物理運動關係的能力，譬如實驗中，拉操作桿而玩具會動起來。至於，為何這兩者會放在一起討論，重點在於關聯主義、聯結主義（associationism, connectiveism），而如果仔細思考，第一項的共享式注意力現象，即是行為主義難以解釋的現象之一，因為共享式注意力似乎沒有增強與清楚配對的學習過程；但文中也說明，可以藉由不斷地訓練，藉由第二項的聯結學習可以使得第一項的共享式注意力能力培養起來。當然最後這段說法純粹是個人意見，學者將兩者放在一起討論主要是為了尋求自閉症患者失去了何者能力。
Infant's Gaze May Be An Early, But Subtle, Marker For Autism Risk
02 Sep 2010
Kennedy Krieger Institute announced new study results showing an
early marker for later communication and social delays in infants at a
higher-risk for autism may be infrequent gazing at other people when
unprompted. Published in the September issue of the Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, the study also found that six-month-old
high-risk infants demonstrated the same level of cause and effect
learning skills when compared to low-risk infants of the same age.
The study observed 25 infant siblings of children with autism (high-risk
group) and 25 infants with no family history of autism (low-risk group)
at six months of age in order to assess cause and effect learning as
well as social engagement. Infant siblings of children with autism are
considered at high-risk for the disorder, as they are 25 times more
likely to develop autism. Researchers at Kennedy Krieger, in
collaboration with colleagues at the University of Delaware, created a
novel, multi-stimuli social learning task, where infants were seated in a
custom chair with an attached joystick within easy reach, a musical toy
located to the right and their caregiver on the left. Researchers
evaluated how quickly the infant learned that the joystick activated the
toy and the infant's level of social engagement with their caregiver.
Researchers found that, like the low-risk group, the high-risk siblings
exhibited typical levels of social gazing when their caregivers actively
engaged them, such as pointing at the toy and expressing excitement.
However, high-risk sibs spent less time looking to their caregivers and
more time fixated on the non-social stimuli (toy or joystick) when the
caregiver was not engaging them, which could indicate a disruption in
development related to joint attention. Joint attention is often a core
deficit for children with autism.
"My colleagues and I wanted to create a task that would involve learning
something novel and would give babies an opportunity to pay attention
to either an object or their caregiver," said Dr. Rebecca Landa,
corresponding study author and director of Kennedy Krieger's Center for
Autism and Related Disorders. "This study shows that there is a
particular vulnerability in high-risk siblings at six months of age.
They are not as socially interactive and engaged on their own as their
peers, but still respond typically when engaged by their caregivers,
making for a subtle difference that could be easily overlooked by both
parents and some professionals."
The study also showed no evidence of impaired associative learning in
the high-risk siblings. Both groups demonstrated cause and effect
learning abilities; once the infants learned that pulling the joystick
activated the toy, they increased how often they pulled on the joystick
to activate the toy's music. This finding supports past research
demonstrating that associative learning is a relative strength in older
individuals with autism and may help to explain why children with autism
respond well to teaching approaches that utilize a predictable reward
system when children exhibit desired behaviors.
"Babies in both groups of the study learned the multi-stimuli task to
the same degree," said Dr. Landa. "While the high-risk siblings are at a
higher risk for developing autism later in life, they still have the
capacity to learn cause and effect as well as their low-risk peers at
this young age."
Implications from the overall study findings reveal that like older
children, infants at high risk for autism may benefit from frequent
exposure to simple cause and effect learning opportunities to aid in
their development. For example, Landa recommends using simple songs
paired with easy, predictable gestures to promote language and social
learning, rather than using electronic toys that children can enjoy and
operate without engaging with their peers or caregivers.
It is expected that about 20 percent of the high-risk infants in this
study will receive a diagnosis of autism. While participants in this
study have not yet reached their third birthday, the age at which the
research diagnoses are confirmed, the study findings help to highlight
the vulnerability of developing social initiation skills in high-risk
infants. This study is the first of its kind, and a follow-up will soon
be published from the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at
Kennedy Krieger Institute.
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