The Cambridge-Edinburgh Human Imaging and Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by challenges in social communication and interaction, and restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests. Recently, studies have sought to identify early risk factors for the development of ASD. ASD is generally diagnosed around 3 years of age, so researchers have investigated early symptoms in infants at increased risk of developing ASD such as siblings of children who already have a diagnosis of ASD. Research has indicated differences in brain development between those children who go on to develop ASD and those who do not at 6 months of age. However, studies have not yet examined development before birth and how this relates to brain development shortly after birth and behavioural development throughout the first few years of life.

The study aims to explore relationships between brain development before and shortly after birth and later ASD characteristics in children with an increased likelihood of developing ASD. A total of 60 children will be recruited: 30 children who are at increased risk of developing ASD because their mothers have ASD and a control group of 30 children with typically developing mothers. Children will undergo MRI scanning before birth (at around 30 weeks of pregnancy) in order to gather data on brain structure and function and will then be followed up at 4 time points: between 0-3 months old, at 6 months old, at 12-18 months and at 24-36 months old. At the 0-3 month follow up, MRI data will be collected again. Questionnaire measures assessing various aspects of development will be administered at each follow up assessment. Measures of behaviour related to autism will be collected at the 6 month and 24-36 month assessments via 'gaze tracking' experiments which will map the development of infant response to social and non-social stimuli. Diagnostic assessments for ASD will be administered at the final 24-36 month follow-up. Brain structure and function prior to birth and shortly after birth will be compared between the groups and neural predictors of later autistic traits will be investigated in order to identify early markers that may be predictive of risk for autism.