This is a renewal application for the UCLA Autism Center of Excellence. The primary focus of the UCLA ACE renewal is to understand the relationship between aberrant brain development and core deficits in autism by identifying mechanisms relating genes to brain structure/function and brain to behavior, and to develop effective interventions based on basic experimental and clinical research findings that will change outcomes in autism. In five interdependent projects and cores, our center builds on our expertise in autism genetics, multimodal brain imaging, early detection and analysis of core autism features, and experience in implementing randomized control trials of novel interventions that target these core symptoms. In this renewal application, projects focus on defining longitudinal trajectories of brain and behavioral development in infants with multiple risks for autism (Proj I);infants and toddlers with early signs of autism (Project II), nonverbal school age children with autism (Proj III), and higher functioning children/ adolescents (Project IV), using a shared set of imaging, neurophysiological and neurobehavioral biomarkers, as well as genetic risk and expression analysis (Proj V) in longitudinal studies. This center is focused on understanding both early and later trajectories of emerging and developing functional connectivity and behavioral change in relation to variation in autism phenotypes, defining how genetic risks mediate both imaging and behavioral phenotypes, and altering trajectories through two separate treatments focused on core deficits in ASD, one targeted developing joint attention and social orientation in infants, and one focused on improving language nonverbal children with augmentative pharmacological intervention. Four cores support the scientific goals: an Administrative Core, facilitating scientific progress and providing data management/statistics support;a Diagnostic and Phenotyping Core;a Neuroimaging/Neurophysiology core, and a Research Education and Outreach core. The UCLA ACE benefits from our years of working together as a team. We present a highly integrated center with multiple collaborations across levels of analysis to further a strongly translational research strategy aimed at changing outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Public Health Relevance

This is a renewal application for the UCLA Autism Center of Excellence. The UCLA Autism Center of Excellence is dedicated to identifying the causes of autism, discovering how risk factors translate into abnormal brain development, developing and validating novel interventions, and targeting the core deficits to change trajectories and outcomes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Specialized Center (P50)
Project #
2P50HD055784-06
Application #
8386001
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHD1-DSR-Y (54))
Program Officer
Kau, Alice S
Project Start
2007-08-06
Project End
2017-05-31
Budget Start
2012-09-04
Budget End
2013-05-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$2,065,152
Indirect Cost
$793,708
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
092530369
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
Dickinson, Abigail; DiStefano, Charlotte; Lin, Yin-Ying et al. (2018) Interhemispheric alpha-band hypoconnectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder. Behav Brain Res 348:227-234
Dickinson, Abigail; DiStefano, Charlotte; Senturk, Damla et al. (2018) Peak alpha frequency is a neural marker of cognitive function across the autism spectrum. Eur J Neurosci 47:643-651
Iverson, Jana M; Northrup, Jessie B; Leezenbaum, Nina B et al. (2018) Early Gesture and Vocabulary Development in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 48:55-71
Miller, Meghan; Iosif, Ana-Maria; Young, Gregory S et al. (2018) The dysregulation profile in preschoolers with and without a family history of autism spectrum disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry :
Lawrence, Katherine E; Hernandez, Leanna M; Bookheimer, Susan Y et al. (2018) Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res :
Green, Shulamite A; Hernandez, Leanna M; Bowman, Hilary C et al. (2018) Sensory over-responsivity and social cognition in ASD: Effects of aversive sensory stimuli and attentional modulation on neural responses to social cues. Dev Cogn Neurosci 29:127-139
Di Martino, Adriana; O'Connor, David; Chen, Bosi et al. (2017) Enhancing studies of the connectome in autism using the autism brain imaging data exchange II. Sci Data 4:170010
Hernandez, L M; Krasileva, K; Green, S A et al. (2017) Additive effects of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms on reward circuitry in youth with autism. Mol Psychiatry 22:1134-1139
Varcin, Kandice J; Jeste, Shafali S (2017) The emergence of autism spectrum disorder: insights gained from studies of brain and behaviour in high-risk infants. Curr Opin Psychiatry 30:85-91
Charman, Tony; Young, Gregory S; Brian, Jessica et al. (2017) Non-ASD outcomes at 36 months in siblings at familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD): A baby siblings research consortium (BSRC) study. Autism Res 10:169-178

Showing the most recent 10 out of 119 publications