782 - Examining the Relation between Infant Non-Nutritive Sucking Patterns and Early Indicators of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study

Publication Number: 782.4694

Alaina Martens, Northeastern University, Quincy, MA, United States; Ross Westemeyer, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, United States; Megan L. Woodbury, Northeastern University, Peoria, IL, United States; Deborah Watkins, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; Gredia Huerta-Montanez, Northeastern University, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, United States; Jose F. Cordero, University of Georgia, ATLANTA, GA, United States; John D. Meeker, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States; Emily Zimmerman, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States

Background: Infant non-nutritive suck (NNS; sucking on a pacifier without nutrients) is one of the earliest oromotor behaviors and has been associated with future cognitive, speech-language, motor, and feeding development. Additionally, delayed sucking can be an indicator of neonatal brain injury and used as an index of early brain development. Therefore, NNS function may be a viable biomarker to identify delayed or disordered neurodevelopment, such as in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is a need for more accessible, non-invasive, and objective measures to assess infants' neurodevelopmental status early in life, such as evaluating NNS.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between infant NNS outcomes and ASD assessment scores in early childhood.

Design/Methods: Thirty-seven infants completed this preliminary study. Participants are from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program in Puerto Rico (ECHO-PROTECT). One-to-eight-week-old infants sucked on our research pacifier connected to a custom pressure transducer system to measure NNS duration, frequency (Hz), amplitude (cmH2O), cycles, bursts, and cycles/burst. At two years of age, caregivers completed the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS2), a 65-item rating scale measuring social symptoms associated with ASD, which provided T-scores for the following subscales: social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, and restricted interests and repetitive behaviors (RIRB). Pearson correlations were run on NNS parameters and SRS2 subscale T-scores.

Results: There was a significant positive correlation between NNS bursts (average number of suck bursts/minute) and RIRB scores, r=0.42, p=0.012. There was also a significant inverse relationship between NNS duration and social cognition scores, r=-0.34, p=0.045. No other statistically significant relationships were found among NNS and SRS2 variables.

Conclusion(s): Our data revealed that more NNS bursts/minute in infancy was associated with higher scores on the RIRB subscale at two years of age, and that longer duration of NNS bursts in infancy was related with lower-reported ASD symptoms in social cognition at two years. Characterization of oromotor behaviors associated with ASD symptoms could help identify children at an elevated risk of ASD and result in earlier access to assessment and intervention services. Data collection is ongoing, and we project a sample size of N=60 by April 2025. Further analyses will add these new participants and control for factors including gestational age at birth and age at SRS2 testing.