Browsing by Author "Redcay, Elizabeth"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Amygdala Volume and Social Reward in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
    (2020) Kiely, Matthew; Yarger, Heather; Merchant, Junaid; Redcay, Elizabeth; Redcay, Elizabeth; Yarger, Heather
    Social interaction is a vital part of our everyday life and while there have been many studies that have helped elucidate both the neural components and extrinsic factors of these processes, it is still something that is not completely understood. This is especially relevant to those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as they are often characterized as having social processing deficits. Social cognition is one of the many functions associated with the limbic system, along with reward and emotion processing. Previous studies have shown that social interaction is rewarding and has been shown to activate regions in the limbic system (Warnell et al., 2017). The amygdala is a region included in social/reward circuitry within the limbic system, such that larger amygdala volumes have been associated with higher connectivity within these regions (Bickart et al., 2012). There have not been previous studies to our knowledge assessing how amygdala volume and social reward sensitivity may vary together, motivating the current study. Therefore, this study aims to assess how social reward relates to amygdala volume in 49 children (ASD = 21, TD = 31) aged 8 to 14 with and without a diagnosis of ASD. Social reward will be assessed using the Prosocial Interactions and Sociability subscales of the Social Reward Questionnaire (SRQ; Foulkes et al., 2014). Amygdala volumes were extracted using MRICloud (Mori et al., 2016). Amygdala size and SRQ subscale differences between groups will be analyzed using an analysis of covariance (controlling for total gray matter) and an independent samples t-test, respectively. A regression analysis will be conducted in order to examine amygdala and SRQ associations.
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    fMRI Meta-Analysis of Social Interaction via Joint Attention Paradigms
    (2022-04-27) Edakoth, Esha; Glaros, Sophia; Harris, Riley; McGovern, Chelsea; Merchant, Junaid S; Tchangalova, Nedelina; Redcay, Elizabeth
    Joint Attention (JA) is the sharing of attention on a common object or event by two or more people. JA is an important precursor to the development of social cognitive skills needed for more sophisticated forms of social interaction. The brain regions involved in JA during social interactive contexts are not well known because original studies of JA used tasks that are not interactive, such as engaging with the eye gaze of a static image outside of a social interactive context. Recent studies have used fMRI to understand the different brain regions associated with JA in interactive contexts, but there are inconsistent findings across studies. Therefore, this study uses meta-analytic methods to aggregate findings across JA studies using social interactive approaches to identify brain regions that are commonly activated.
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    Neural sensitivity to social reward predicts links between social behavior and loneliness in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (Wiley, 2023-08-04) Dziura, Sarah L.; McNaughton, Kathryn A.; Giacobbe, Elizabeth; Yarger, Heather A.; Hickey, Alexandra C.; Shariq, Deena; Redcay, Elizabeth
    Neural reward network sensitivity in youth is proposed to differentially impact the effects of social environments on social outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to test this hypothesis within a context of diminished in-person social interaction. We examined whether neural sensitivity to interactive social reward moderates the relationship between a frequency of interactive or passive social activity and social satisfaction. Survey reports of frequency of interactions with friends, passive social media use, and loneliness and social satisfaction were gathered in 2020 during mandated precautions limiting in-person contact. A subset of participants (age = 10–17) previously participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examining social-interactive reward during a simulated peer interaction (survey n = 76; survey + fMRI n = 40). We found evidence of differential response to social context, such that youth with higher neural reward sensitivity showed a negative association between a frequency of interactive connections with friends and a combined loneliness and social dissatisfaction component (LSDC) score, whereas those with lower sensitivity showed the opposite effect. Further, high reward sensitivity was associated with greater LSDC as passive social media use increased, whereas low reward sensitivity showed the opposite. This indicates that youth with greater sensitivity to social-interactive reward may be more susceptible to negative effects of infrequent contact than their low reward-sensitive counterparts, who instead maintain social well-being through passive viewing of social content. These differential outcomes could have implications for supporting youth during times of major social disruption as well as ensuring mental health and well-being more broadly.
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    Parental Mental State Talk and Associations with Children’s Mentalizing Ability in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
    (2020) Bloomer, Bess; Shariq, Deena; Alkire, Diana; Yarger, Heather; Redcay, Elizabeth; Redcay, Elizabeth
    The current project investigated the relationship between parental mental state talk and their child's use of mentalizing language, in both children with typical development (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants included 40 parent-child dyads (20 ASD, 20 TD), and measured spontaneous/unprompted mentalizing tendencies in both parents and children using the Mind-Mindedness task and Triangles task, respectively. Results suggest that average amount of child mentalizing statements is not significantly associated with average parental mental state talk, and the relationship is not moderated by group status (ASD/TD). Though the current study rendered no significant associations, the links between parental and child mental state use in later childhood years, especially in the context of developmental disorders, represents a key area of exploration for future research.
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    Read my lips! Perception of speech in noise by preschool children with autism and the impact of watching the speaker’s face
    (Springer Nature, 2021-01-05) Newman, Rochelle S.; Kirby, Laura A.; Von Holzen, Katie; Redcay, Elizabeth
    Adults and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders show greater difficulties comprehending speech in the presence of noise. Moreover, while neurotypical adults use visual cues on the mouth to help them understand speech in background noise, differences in attention to human faces in autism may affect use of these visual cues. No work has yet examined these skills in toddlers with ASD, despite the fact that they are frequently faced with noisy, multitalker environments.
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    Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Differences in Autistic and Nonautistic Youth
    (2024) Zawatsky, Julia; Yarger, Heather; Redcay, Elizabeth; Yarger, Heather; Redcay, Elizabeth
    Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) represents the activity of the vagus nerve and is an indicator of parasympathetic activity. Low levels of RSA at rest indicate blunted parasympathetic activity. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory suggests that vagus nerve activity is linked to one’s ability to regulate their physiological states and social behaviors (Porges, 2007). Many studies have shown that there is a difference in RSA values between autistic and nonautistic individuals, which is thought to be connected to weakened stress responses and a decreased ability to adapt in social situations (Cheng, 2020). While these studies have shown that these two groups differ at rest, many of them lacked ecological validity as they were conducted in a laboratory setting. Thus, our research question aimed to answer if there are differences in RSA at baseline between autistic and non autistic adolescents in a more ecologically valid setting using data collected in participants' homes. Twenty-two (11 autistic, 11 nonautistic) youth,Mage 12.9 years (SD=0.85) participated in the current study. Participants were asked to wear a Zephyr Bioharness and biomodule that gathered physiological data including heart rate and breathing rate for around 10 minutes for 1-3 timepoints in a home setting. We then processed the data into RSA values. Using an independent sample t-test, we found that there were significant differences in RSA values between the two groups. Specifically, autistic adolescents were found to have lower RSA during at-home baselines relative to the nonautistic group (t=3.247, p= <0.01). Our study produced similar results as previous research, but in a more ecological setting.