Research Overview

The Attachment and Neurodevelopment Lab is directed by Dr Lane Strathearn, a neuroscientist and developmental pediatrician at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. 

In the proposed AGES study, our intent is to examine genetic and social environment risk markers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children diagnosed with and without ASD. Specifically, we will explore polygenic risk and changes in DNA methylation as a function of age and social experience during the first 3 years of life.
We will use an innovative new smartphone tool called 'BabySteps' to collect in-home behavioral data on mothers and their children. We will utilize the UI REDCap to screen participants for eligibility and consent to the study. Once consents have been reviewed by the research team, eligible families will get a unique code which will allow them to download and access the BabySteps tool. Enrolled children will be between the ages of 14 months and 3 years old, and mothers will record data for approximately 6 months. The app will 1) collect real-time repeated measures of parental stress, depression, and anxiety through ecological momentary assessments (or EMA’s); and 2) facilitate the recording of developmental milestones via screening questionnaires or prompts. We will also utilize REDCap to administer surveys to participants. These survey links will be accessible on BabySteps. We will utilize behavioral coding of these recordings to study individual and dyadic parent-child behavior. The short videos will be recorded in the lab. An audio recording device called LENA will be utilized to record 8 hours of audio-recording in the home environment.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disabilities, adversely affecting an increasing number of families worldwide. Although its etiology is strongly linked to genetic factors, perinatal experience, including prenatal stress and post-natal social experience, may also contribute to deficits in social communication in ASD, potentially via epigenetic mechanisms. For example, the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is epigenetically altered by early social experience, plays a crucial role in mammalian social and cognitive development, and is associated with both genetic and epigenetic risk for ASD. However, the relationship between perinatal experience and epigenetic change in ASD is unclear. 

Our central hypothesis for the PAGES study is that prenatal stress and early social experience predicts epigenetic changes in specific genes, which are associated with social communication deficits in ASD. To achieve our overall goal of discovering modifiable pathways for intervention in children at risk for ASD, we will recruit over 7,200 pregnant women to use an innovative smartphone application, BabySteps, to collect prospective data from the 3rd trimester of pregnancy until 30 months post-delivery. Between ages 18 to 27 months, BabySteps will be used to screen for symptoms of ASD or developmental delay (DD) in the offspring, which will trigger a full diagnostic assessment at the Center for Disabilities and Development. Children with a range of social communication deficits (including those diagnosed with ASD or non-ASD DD) will be compared with typically developing children (TD) who are matched on race, sex, and socioeconomic status.  

The lab has received funding from the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to support the newly-funded University of Iowa Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (Hawk-IDDRC).

Research Participation

AGES: Study aims to examine genetic and social environment risk markers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children diagnosed with and without ASD. Specifically, we will explore polygenic risk and changes in DNA methylation as a function of age and social experience during the first 3 years of life. 

PAGES: The overall goal of this project is to discover modifiable pathways for intervention in children at risk for ASD. We will collect real-time, in-home behavioral data from pregnant women using MyCap - BabySteps, a smartphone research application. Specifically, perinatal
experience will be documented via 1) parent-report questionnaires 2) clinical assessments of ASD and video-recorded social communication; and 3) digital audio recordings of language communication, using a Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recording device.