Abnormal activity patterns in premotor cortex during sequence learning in autistic patients

The Neural Circuitry Mediating Shifts in Behavioral Response and Cognitive Set in Autism

“…Our findings of reduced activation in multiple brain regions during set shifting are consistent with at least three other reports of hypoactivation in frontal regions during EF-related tasks (34,36,44). However, Schmitz et al (35) reported significantly increased brain activation in multiple areas during a motor inhibition task, a cognitive interference task, and a set shifting task.…”

“…These findings complement and extend recent imaging studies of the neural substrates of EF deficits in autism, such as reports of reduced PFC activation during motor sequence learning (34), auditory target detection (44), and response inhibition (36). The task used in the current study isolated two components of EF often measured through the WCST (i.e., the shifting of behavioral responses and cognitive sets) (28).…”

“…However, the few imaging studies that have investigated EF deficits in autism have yielded conflicting results. Whereas one study found that regions within frontal cortex normally engaged by motor sequence learning were not recruited by individuals with autism (34), another study suggested that brain regions mediating inhibitory and set shifting behaviors were overactive in ASD individuals (35). A third study has indicated reduced activity in medial frontal regions during response inhibition (36).…”

A CAD system for early diagnosis of autism using different imaging modalities.

“…Results showed high motor activation in autistic subjects in the ipsilateral anterior cerebellar hemisphere compared to normal subjects. Muller et al [218] tested eight autistic adult males and their matched controls for motor activity during sequence learning. After data preprocessing and normalization, the hemodynamic effects associated with task-control cycles were statistically examined using the general linear model (GLM).…”

“…Motor tasks experiments in the literature [216][217][218][219][220][221] revealed that the bilateral precentral gyri and the inferior frontal gyri are more activated in cases with autism than they are in neurotypicals. On the other hand, the left culmen and the right superior temporal gyrus showed greater activation in neurotypicals.…”