Social anxiety is highly prevalent in neurotypical children and children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). FXS is a genetic syndrome that is characterized by intellectual disability and an increased risk for autism spectrum disorder. If social anxiety is left untreated, negative outcomes are highly prevalent later in life. However, early detection of social anxiety is challenging as symptoms are often subtle or absent very early in life. Given the prevalence and impairment associated with childhood social anxiety, efforts have accelerated to identify risk markers of anxiety. A cluster of early features of anxiety have been identified including elevated behavioral inhibition, attentional biases, and physiological dysregulation that index early emerging markers of social anxiety. Infants with FXS provide a unique opportunity to study the earlier predictors of social anxiety. The current study utilized a multi-method approach to investigate early markers of social anxiety in 12-month-old infants with FXS. Participants included 32 infants with FXS and 41 low-risk controls, all approximately 12 months old. Parent-reported social behavioral inhibition was recorded from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R). Direct observations of behavioral inhibition and attention were measured during a stranger approach task with respiratory sinus arrhythmia collected simultaneously. Parent-reported social behavioral inhibition was not significantly different between groups. In contrast, direct observations suggested that infants with FXS displayed elevated behavioral inhibition, increased attention towards the stranger, and a blunted respiratory sinus arrhythmia response. Findings suggest that infants with FXS show both behavioral and physiological markers of social anxiety at 12 months old using a biobehavioral approach with multiple sources of input. Results highlight the importance of a multi-method approach to understanding the complex early emergent characteristics of anxiety in infants with FXS.

中文翻译：

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脆性 X 综合征婴儿社交焦虑的早期行为和生理标志物

社交焦虑在神经型儿童和脆性 X 综合征 (FXS) 儿童中非常普遍。FXS 是一种遗传综合征，其特征是智力障碍和自闭症谱系障碍的风险增加。如果社交焦虑得不到治疗，那么负面结果在以后的生活中非常普遍。然而，社交焦虑的早期发现具有挑战性，因为在生命的早期症状通常很微妙或不存在。考虑到与儿童社交焦虑相关的普遍性和损害，人们已经加快了努力，以确定焦虑的风险标志。已经确定了一系列焦虑的早期特征，包括行为抑制升高、注意力偏差和生理失调，这些都是早期出现的社交焦虑标志物。患有 FXS 的婴儿提供了一个独特的机会来研究社交焦虑的早期预测因素。目前的研究采用多方法方法来调查 12 个月大的 FXS 婴儿社交焦虑的早期标志物。参与者包括 32 名患有 FXS 的婴儿和 41 名低风险对照，全部大约 12 个月大。从婴儿行为问卷 (IBQ-R) 中记录了父母报告的社交行为抑制。在同时收集呼吸性窦性心律失常的陌生人接近任务期间测量了对行为抑制和注意力的直接观察。家长报告的社会行为抑制在各组之间没有显着差异。相比之下，直接观察表明患有 FXS 的婴儿表现出更高的行为抑制，对陌生人的关注增加，和迟钝的呼吸性窦性心律失常反应。研究结果表明，使用具有多种输入来源的生物行为方法，患有 FXS 的婴儿在 12 个月大时表现出社交焦虑的行为和生理标志。结果强调了采用多方法方法来理解 FXS 婴儿焦虑的复杂早期出现特征的重要性。