This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) provides $357,876 to Duke University to support the development of electrophysiological biomarkers for measuring social engagement in children with autism.
The key objectives of this 4-year research project are to: 1) validate the association between decreased gaze to social stimuli and altered frontal/posterior EEG power in autistic children; 2) analyze the relationship between these EEG biomarkers and observations of child-caregiver social engagement; and 3) examine the longitudinal changes in these EEG measures and changes in standardized social communication assessments over time. The project will also explore novel functional connectivity analyses to determine if these biomarkers relate to measures of social engagement. This research aims to advance the development of new tools for screening, stratification, and measuring outcomes in autism interventions that target social skills.
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