A Family/Genetic Study of Autism:
Who We Are
The Seaver Center was developed to study the biological causes of autism and to develop effective treatment options for autistic patients and their family members. Established by a grant in 1993 by the Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation, the Seaver Center is a collaborative effort that integrates the work of child and adult psychiatry, experimental therapeutics, biological psychiatry, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, immunology and psychopharmacology. The Seaver Center collaborates with community service organizations in the New York area, as well as sponsors a national annual autism conference attended by over 600 professionals and family members.
The Family Studies Research Center was founded by Dr. Jeremy Silverman and began researching the genetics of autism in 1995. We are an affiliate of the Seaver Center and receive funding from the foundation yearly. In addition we also receive funding from NIMH and privately funded organizations such as Cure Autism Now (CAN). Our research began using traditional genetic epidemiological studies (twin studies, family history and direct family studies) to help provide evidence for the presence of genetic factors in autism. Since that time, we have expanded to incorporate other methodologies including implicit learning studies, endophenotyping studies and cross-cultural studies to gain a more worldly understanding of this complicated and devastating disorder.Background
A core deficit of autism is a severe impairment in social interaction prior to age three. During this time period in typical development, young children are observing others and acquiring social skills with no conscious effort. This implicitly acquired information is crucial to the development of both nonverbal and verbal communication sills, which in turn will help to modulate social interaction. The autism related deficits in these areas suggest impairments in the ability to implicitly acquire social information
Implicit learning is defined as the ability to acquire information from the environment largely without conscious effort and researchers have conducted studies in both general and clinical populations, and compared it to explicit learning. Subjects' performance on such tasks consistently remains stable when explicit functioning tends to vary with age, IQ, psychological or neurological factors. Indeed the results from the implicit learning literature present a compelling area for further scientific exploration.Purpose and Goals
Our research aims to investigate the potential autism related deficit in the ability to unconsciously acquire information from the environment. It is clearly demonstrated that infants
display ability to acquire information from the environment, which is before more obvious signs of effortful conscious processes for learning. From birth to age three, the skills acquired are critical to the development of communication and social skills, and deficits in these areas are at the core of an autism diagnoses. An examination of unconscious acquisition ability, or implicit learning, in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder may help to explain the origin of such deficits.
Research Summary
This Cure Autism Now (CAN) funded project is currently in year one of a funded two year study. To date, we have enrolled 14 families (en route to our goal of 20) with at least one individual affected with an autism spectrum disorder and 8 control families(en route to our goal of 20). Data analyses have only just begun, but results are promising and will hopefully lead to a larger, NIH funded study.
Current Progress
We would like to thank all of the families that have been generous enough to donate their time and energy to our autism projects. We are very appreciative and can't thank them enough for contributing to not only our project, but also to society's need to have a better understanding of the genetics of autism as a prelude to creating better models and treatments of this devastating disorder. Together we hope researchers, patients, and their families will find the path to effectively preventing and maximally treating autism.
GCO# 04-0631
IRB Approved 2/22/06 - 1/31/07
Principal Investigator: Christopher Smith, PhD
Sponsor: Cure Autism Now (CAN)