@phdthesis{8675265,
  abstract     = {{Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities (RRB) (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). ASD is a high-incident, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder (Johnson & Myers, 2007). People with ASD often encounter social and communication difficulties in their daily lives. Early detection of and intervention with ASD children have always been the focus of the research field and play an important role in helping ASD children lead a more normal life. Since the main features of ASD usually appear after the first year and reliable diagnosis of ASD can be made at 24 months of age (Guthrie et al., 2008), investigation of early brain functions and possible pre-behavioural markers is essential to elucidate the early developmental trajectory of ASD.
The emergence of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), as a valuable tool for measuring cortical activity, provides a promising approach for studying functional brain development in young infants (Gervain, 2018; Gervain et al., 2011; Zhang & Roeyers, 2019). fNIRS refers to the use of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for functional neuroimaging purposes, which measures neural activity by observing hemodynamic changes in the brain tissue (Ferrari & Quaresima, 2012; Guo et al., 2013; Scholkmann et al., 2014). Due to its moderate spatiotemporal resolution and other characteristics (e.g., safety, low-cost, portability), fNIRS has become a widely used implementation in neuroscientific research (Gervain, 2014; Lloyd-Fox et al., 2010; Zhang & Roeyers, 2019). fNIRS is a promising alternative method to study the cognitive development of specific populations, especially those for whom the use of other imaging modalities are limited, such as awake infants (Lloyd-Fox et al., 2015), people with psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression) (Schecklmann et al., 2011) or developmental disorders (e.g., ASD and ADHD) (Ehlis et al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2015).
To the best of our knowledge, there are only a few studies using fNIRS to examine brain responses underlying language and social processing in EL infants. The main purpose of this doctoral work was to use fNIRS to gain a deeper understanding of the brain responses (including language and social processes) of infants with or without elevated likelihood for ASD.}},
  author       = {{Zhang, Fen}},
  keywords     = {{autism spectrum disorder,functional near-infrared spectroscopy,Infant's brain}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{216}},
  publisher    = {{Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische wetenschappen}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Exploring early neurodevelopment in infants with or without elevated likelihood for autism spectrum disorder by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}