Browsing by Author "Rea, Hannah"

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    Rhythmic Attentional Sampling in Autism
    (Wiley, 2023) Fan, Xiaoxu; Kolodny, Tamar; Woodard, Kristin M.; Tasevac, Aydin; Ganz, Wesley R.; Rea, Hannah; Kurtz-Nelson, Evangeline C.; Webb, Sara Jane; Murray, Scott O.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Individuals diagnosed with autism often display alterations in visual spatial attention toward visual stimuli, but the underlying cause of these differences remains unclear. Recent evidence has demonstrated that covert spatial attention, rather than remaining constant at a cued location, samples stimuli rhythmically at a frequency of 4-8 Hz (theta). Here we tested whether rhythmic sampling of attention is altered in autism. Participants were asked to monitor three locations to detect a brief target presented 300-1200 ms after a spatial cue. Visual attention was oriented to the cue and modified visual processing at the cued location, consistent with previous studies. We measured detection performance at different cue-target intervals when the target occurred at the cued location. Significant oscillations in detection performance were identified using both a traditional time-shuffled approach and a new autoregressive surrogate method developed by Brookshire in 2022. We found that attention enhances behavioral performance rhythmically at the same frequency in both autism and control group at the cued location. However, rhythmic temporal structure was not observed in a subgroup of autistic individuals with co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Our results imply that intrinsic brain rhythms which organize neural activity into alternating attentional states is functional in autistic individuals, but may be altered in autistic participants who have a concurrent ADHD diagnosis.
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    Shared and divergent mental health characteristics of ADNP-, CHD8- and DYRK1A-related neurodevelopmental conditions
    (Springer Nature, 2024-04-15) Neuhaus, Emily; Rea, Hannah; Jones, Elizabeth; Benavidez, Hannah; Miles, Conor; Whiting, Alana; Johansson, Margaret; Eayrs, Curtis; Kurtz‑Nelson, Evangeline C.; Earl, Rachel; Bernier, Raphael A.; Eichler, Evan E.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Background: Neurodevelopmental conditions such as intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can stem from a broad array of inherited and de novo genetic differences, with marked physiological and behavioral impacts. We currently know little about the psychiatric phenotypes of rare genetic variants associated with ASD, despite heightened risk of psychiatric concerns in ASD more broadly. Understanding behavioral features of these variants can identify shared versus specific phenotypes across gene groups, facilitate mechanistic models, and provide prognostic insights to inform clinical practice. In this paper, we evaluate behavioral features within three gene groups associated with ID and ASD - ADNP, CHD8, and DYRK1A - with two aims: (1) characterize phenotypes across behavioral domains of anxiety, depression, ADHD, and challenging behavior; and (2) understand whether age and early developmental milestones are associated with later mental health outcomes. Methods: Phenotypic data were obtained for youth with disruptive variants in ADNP, CHD8, or DYRK1A (N = 65, mean age = 8.7 years, 40% female) within a long-running, genetics-first study. Standardized caregiver-report measures of mental health features (anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional behavior) and developmental history were extracted and analyzed for effects of gene group, age, and early developmental milestones on mental health features. Results: Patterns of mental health features varied by group, with anxiety most prominent for CHD8, oppositional features overrepresented among ADNP, and attentional and depressive features most prominent for DYRK1A. For the full sample, age was positively associated with anxiety features, such that elevations in anxiety relative to same-age and same-sex peers may worsen with increasing age. Predictive utility of early developmental milestones was limited, with evidence of early language delays predicting greater difficulties across behavioral domains only for the CHD8 group. Conclusions: Despite shared associations with autism and intellectual disability, disruptive variants in ADNP, CHD8, and DYRK1A may yield variable psychiatric phenotypes among children and adolescents. With replication in larger samples over time, efforts such as these may contribute to improved clinical care for affected children and adolescents, allow for earlier identification of emerging mental health difficulties, and promote early intervention to alleviate concerns and improve quality of life.