Browsing by Author "Carpenter, Kimberly LH"

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    A Six-Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder
    (Autism Research) Tenenbaum, Elena J; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Sabatos-DeVito, Maura; Hashemi, Jordan; Vermeer, Saritha; Sapiro, Guillermo; Dawson, Geraldine
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    A tablet-based game for the assessment of visual motor skills in autistic children.
    (NPJ digital medicine, 2023-02) Perochon, Sam; Matias Di Martino, J; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Compton, Scott; Davis, Naomi; Espinosa, Steven; Franz, Lauren; Rieder, Amber D; Sullivan, Connor; Sapiro, Guillermo; Dawson, Geraldine
    Increasing evidence suggests that early motor impairments are a common feature of autism. Thus, scalable, quantitative methods for measuring motor behavior in young autistic children are needed. This work presents an engaging and scalable assessment of visual-motor abilities based on a bubble-popping game administered on a tablet. Participants are 233 children ranging from 1.5 to 10 years of age (147 neurotypical children and 86 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder [autistic], of which 32 are also diagnosed with co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [autistic+ADHD]). Computer vision analyses are used to extract several game-based touch features, which are compared across autistic, autistic+ADHD, and neurotypical participants. Results show that younger (1.5-3 years) autistic children pop the bubbles at a lower rate, and their ability to touch the bubble's center is less accurate compared to neurotypical children. When they pop a bubble, their finger lingers for a longer period, and they show more variability in their performance. In older children (3-10-years), consistent with previous research, the presence of co-occurring ADHD is associated with greater motor impairment, reflected in lower accuracy and more variable performance. Several motor features are correlated with standardized assessments of fine motor and cognitive abilities, as evaluated by an independent clinical assessment. These results highlight the potential of touch-based games as an efficient and scalable approach for assessing children's visual-motor skills, which can be part of a broader screening tool for identifying early signs associated with autism.
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    Automatic emotion and attention analysis of young children at home: a ResearchKit autism feasibility study
    (npj Digital Medicine, 2018-12) Egger, Helen L; Dawson, Geraldine; Hashemi, Jordan; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Espinosa, Steven; Campbell, Kathleen; Brotkin, Samuel; Schaich-Borg, Jana; Qiu, Qiang; Tepper, Mariano; Baker, Jeffrey P; Bloomfield, Richard A; Sapiro, Guillermo
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    Distance from Typical Scan Path When Viewing Complex Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Association with Behavior
    (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders) Tenenbaum, Elena J; Major, Samantha; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Howard, Jill; Murias, Michael; Dawson, Geraldine
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    Measuring robustness of brain networks in autism spectrum disorder with Ricci curvature.
    (Scientific reports, 2020-07-02) Simhal, Anish K; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Nadeem, Saad; Kurtzberg, Joanne; Song, Allen; Tannenbaum, Allen; Sapiro, Guillermo; Dawson, Geraldine
    Ollivier-Ricci curvature is a method for measuring the robustness of connections in a network. In this work, we use curvature to measure changes in robustness of brain networks in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In an open label clinical trials, participants with ASD were administered a single infusion of autologous umbilical cord blood and, as part of their clinical outcome measures, were imaged with diffusion MRI before and after the infusion. By using Ricci curvature to measure changes in robustness, we quantified both local and global changes in the brain networks and their potential relationship with the infusion. Our results find changes in the curvature of the connections between regions associated with ASD that were not detected via traditional brain network analysis.
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    Preschool anxiety disorders predict different patterns of amygdala-prefrontal connectivity at school-age.
    (PLoS One, 2015) Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Angold, Adrian; Chen, Nan-Kuei; Copeland, William E; Gaur, Pooja; Pelphrey, Kevin; Song, Allen W; Egger, Helen L
    OBJECTIVE: In this prospective, longitudinal study of young children, we examined whether a history of preschool generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and/or social phobia is associated with amygdala-prefrontal dysregulation at school-age. As an exploratory analysis, we investigated whether distinct anxiety disorders differ in the patterns of this amygdala-prefrontal dysregulation. METHODS: Participants were children taking part in a 5-year study of early childhood brain development and anxiety disorders. Preschool symptoms of generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and social phobia were assessed with the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA) in the first wave of the study when the children were between 2 and 5 years old. The PAPA was repeated at age 6. We conducted functional MRIs when the children were 5.5 to 9.5 year old to assess neural responses to viewing of angry and fearful faces. RESULTS: A history of preschool social phobia predicted less school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and the ventral prefrontal cortices to angry faces. Preschool generalized anxiety predicted less functional connectivity between the amygdala and dorsal prefrontal cortices in response to fearful faces. Finally, a history of preschool separation anxiety predicted less school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and the ventral prefrontal cortices to angry faces and greater school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and dorsal prefrontal cortices to angry faces. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that there are enduring neurobiological effects associated with a history of preschool anxiety, which occur over-and-above the effect of subsequent emotional symptoms. Our results also provide preliminary evidence for the neurobiological differentiation of specific preschool anxiety disorders.
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    The benefit of directly comparing autism and schizophrenia for revealing mechanisms of social cognitive impairment.
    (J Neurodev Disord, 2011-06) Sasson, Noah J; Pinkham, Amy E; Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Belger, Aysenil
    Autism and schizophrenia share a history of diagnostic conflation that was not definitively resolved until the publication of the DSM-III in 1980. Though now recognized as heterogeneous disorders with distinct developmental trajectories and dissociative features, much of the early nosological confusion stemmed from apparent overlap in certain areas of social dysfunction. In more recent years, separate but substantial literatures have accumulated for autism and schizophrenia demonstrating that abnormalities in social cognition directly contribute to the characteristic social deficits of both disorders. The current paper argues that direct comparison of social cognitive impairment can highlight shared and divergent mechanisms underlying pathways to social dysfunction, a process that can provide significant clinical benefit by informing the development of tailored treatment efforts. Thus, while the history of diagnostic conflation between autism and schizophrenia may have originated in similarities in social dysfunction, the goal of direct comparisons is not to conflate them once again but rather to reveal distinctions that illuminate disorder-specific mechanisms and pathways that contribute to social cognitive impairment.
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    White Matter Tract Changes Associated with Clinical Improvement in an Open-Label Trial Assessing Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood for Treatment of Young Children with Autism.
    (Stem cells translational medicine, 2019-02) Carpenter, Kimberly LH; Major, Samantha; Tallman, Catherine; Chen, Lyon W; Franz, Lauren; Sun, Jessica; Kurtzberg, Joanne; Song, Allen; Dawson, Geraldine
    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication deficits and the presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. We have previously reported significant improvements in behavior, including increased social functioning, improved communication abilities, and decreased clinical symptoms in children with ASD, following treatment with a single infusion of autologous cord blood in a phase I open-label trial. In the current study, we aimed to understand whether these improvements were associated with concurrent changes in brain structural connectivity. Twenty-five 2- to 6-year-old children with ASD participated in this trial. Clinical outcome measures included the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II Socialization Subscale, Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4, and the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale. Structural connectivity was measured at baseline and at 6 months in a subset of 19 children with 25-direction diffusion tensor imaging and deterministic tractography. Behavioral improvements were associated with increased white matter connectivity in frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions (hippocampus and basal ganglia) that have been previously shown to show anatomical, connectivity, and functional abnormalities in ASD. The current results suggest that improvements in social communication skills and a reduction in symptoms in children with ASD following treatment with autologous cord blood infusion were associated with increased structural connectivity in brain networks supporting social, communication, and language abilities. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2019;8:138&10.