Millions of children are impacted by neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), which unfold early in life, have varying genetic etiologies and can involve a variety of specific or generalized impairments in social, cognitive and motor functioning requiring potentially lifelong specialized supports. While specific disorders vary in their domain of primary deficit (e.g. autism spectrum disorder (social), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (attention), developmental coordination disorder (motor) and developmental language disorder (language)), comorbidities between NDDs are common. Intriguingly, many NDDs are associated with difficulties in skills related to rhythm, timing and synchrony though specific profiles of rhythm/timing impairments vary across disorders. Impairments in rhythm/timing may instantiate vulnerabilities for a variety of NDDs and may contribute to both the primary symptoms of each disorder as well as the high levels of comorbidities across disorders. Drawing upon genetic, neural, behavioural and interpersonal constructs across disorders, we consider how disrupted rhythm and timing skills early in life may contribute to atypical developmental cascades that involve overlapping symptoms within the context of a disorder's primary deficits. Consideration of the developmental context, as well as common and unique aspects of the phenotypes of different NDDs, will inform experimental designs to test this hypothesis including via potential mechanistic intervention approaches.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology’.

数以百万计的儿童受到神经发育障碍 (NDD) 的影响，这种疾病在生命早期就出现，具有不同的遗传病因，可能涉及社交、认知和运动功能方面的各种特定或普遍损伤，可能需要终生的专门支持。虽然特定疾病的主要缺陷领域有所不同（例如自闭症谱系障碍（社交）、注意力缺陷/多动障碍（注意力）、发育性协调障碍（运动）和发育性语言障碍（语言）），但 NDD 之间的合并症很常见。有趣的是，许多 NDD 都与节律、时间和同步相关的技能困难有关，尽管不同疾病的节律/时间缺陷的具体情况有所不同。节律/时间的损伤可能会导致各种 NDD 的脆弱性，并可能导致每种疾病的主要症状以及各种疾病的高水平合并症。利用跨疾病的遗传、神经、行为和人际结构，我们考虑了生命早期扰乱的节律和计时技能如何导致非典型的发育级联反应，这些级联反应涉及疾病的主要缺陷背景下的重叠症状。考虑发育背景以及不同 NDD 表型的共同和独特方面，将为检验这一假设的实验设计提供信息，包括通过潜在的机械干预方法。

本文是主题“同步与节奏互动：从大脑到行为生态学”的一部分。