# Measuring gene-environment transactions to identify sensitive periods for infant social behavior & brain growth

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $723,635

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This project builds on recent research in our laboratory that showed for the first time that genes directly shape
the way a child sees the world: what a child spends time looking at—as well as how, when, and where she
looks—are all strongly influenced by genetic variation (Constantino et al, Nature, 2017). Identical twins, who
share the same genetic variation, effectively synchronize their looking to social content. Moreover, these same
measures of social looking are markedly and differentially decreased in children with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) (Χ2= 64.03, P < 0.0001). In the current project, we will measure genetic and environmental influence on
social visual engagement and brain growth from birth through toddlerhood, quantifying effects of gene-
environment transactions over time. We will use eye-tracking to measure how infants look at the social world
and MRI to measure changing brain connectivity under conditions of controlled genetic variation: identical &
fraternal twins followed from the first week after birth. We will enroll 240 twins (120 pairs), collecting eye-
tracking data at 10 time points, neuroimaging data at 5 time points, and standardized assessments of social-
communicative competency at 3 time points. This application will test the hypothesis that gene-by-
environment-by-age transactions in the first years of life serve as a powerful developmental canalizing
mechanism, a mechanism capable of providing the necessary shared medium for typical social development,
and yet equally capable of channeling diverse initial liabilities off-course, into atypical social development
resulting in the syndromic social disability called autism spectrum disorder. By quantifying the developmental
timing of gene-environment transactions, together with their impact on phenotypic presentation of social
behavior and brain growth, this project will provide insights into modifiable behavioral pathways that offer the
greatest therapeutic potential to prevent or preempt the emergence of deleterious consequences of atypical
development as found in ASD and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10114908
- **Project number:** 5R01MH118285-03
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Warren Jones
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $723,635
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-02 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10114908

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10114908, Measuring gene-environment transactions to identify sensitive periods for infant social behavior & brain growth (5R01MH118285-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10114908. Licensed CC0.

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