Age-Related Increase in Inferior Frontal Gyrus Activity and Social Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Bastiaansen, Jojanneke A.; Thioux, Marc; Nanetti, Luca; Gaag, Christiaan van der; Ketelaars, Cees; Minderaa, Ruud B.; Keysers, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.11.007

Cited by 93 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…For example, if their attention is directed to the stimuli through explicit instructions to label the emotional expression (Oberman et al, 2009), if the emotional facial expression is coupled with an emotional vocal expression (Magnée et al, 2007), or if the affective stimuli is sufficiently extreme or arousing in nature (Mathersul et al, 2013a). The results of the present study suggest that briefly presented emotional faces do not sufficiently engage the mimicry system in these individuals, similar to previous findings regarding passive viewing of emotional stimuli for protracted duration (Beall et al, 2008;Hermans et al, 2009;McIntosh et al, 2006). Importantly, all participants in the present study were capable of performing the appropriate motor response (participants were instructed to smile and frown to ensure electrodes were fitted correctly), therefore, it cannot be argued that a failure to mimic emotions in the adults with ASDs is due to pure motor deficits.…”

Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 88%

“…This suggests that adults with ASDs may be more impaired in the processing of negative versus positive emotions, consistent with previous research (e.g., Ashwin, Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, O'Riordan, & Bullmore, 2007;Ashwin, Chapman, Colle, & BaronCohen, 2006;Corden, Chilvers, & Skuse, 2008;Wallace, Coleman, & Bailey, 2008). Whilst this may be due to a specific deficit in the processing of threatening stimuli (see below for further discussion), an alternative suggestion may be that facial mimicry to positive (happy) emotions improves with age, consistent with previous studies examining facial mimicry in adults with ASD traits (Hermans et al, 2009) and in children with ASDs (Beall et al, 2008). This might also explain why some recent studies have demonstrated improvements in empathy and social functioning with age in ASDs (Bastiaansen et al, 2011;Schwenck et al, 2012).…”

Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Whilst this may be due to a specific deficit in the processing of threatening stimuli (see below for further discussion), an alternative suggestion may be that facial mimicry to positive (happy) emotions improves with age, consistent with previous studies examining facial mimicry in adults with ASD traits (Hermans et al, 2009) and in children with ASDs (Beall et al, 2008). This might also explain why some recent studies have demonstrated improvements in empathy and social functioning with age in ASDs (Bastiaansen et al, 2011;Schwenck et al, 2012).…”

Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 52%

“…These responses occur even when the emotional stimuli are presented very briefly (30 ms; Dimberg, Thunberg, & Elmehed, 2000). A handful of studies have shown that high-functioning children (Beall, Moody, McIntosh, Hepburn, & Reed, 2008), adolescents and adults (McIntosh, Reichmann-Decker, Winkielman, & Wilbarger, 2006) with ASDs, and adults with ASD traits (Hermans, van Wingen, Bos, Putman, & van Honk, 2009), display atypical (delayed or absent) spontaneous/automatic mimicry of passively viewed facial emotional (happy and angry) expressions presented for protracted duration (3-8 s), whilst their voluntary mimicry (production of expression when instructed) remains intact. Whilst this research implies that the early automatic aspects of emotion recognition are impaired in ASDs, the use of protracted exposure times makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions regarding this.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Automatic facial responses to briefly presented emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Mathersul

McDonald

Rushby

2013

Biological Psychology

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Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Facial Emg Responsessupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Automatic facial responses to briefly presented emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Mathersul

McDonald

Rushby

2013

Biological Psychology

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“…In contrast, Martineau et al (2010) reported hyperactivation of the pars opercularis (belonging to the MNS) during observation of human motion in autistic subjects compared to controls. Baastiaansen et al (2011) reported that IFG activity during the observation of facial expressions increased with age in subjects with autism, but not in controls, suggesting improved social functioning with age. In terms of functional connectivity, Villalobos et al (2005) found reduced fMRI connectivity between primary visual cortex and bilateral IFG during visuomotor coordination in eight participants with ASD, compared to matched TD participants.…”

Section: Causes and Brain Correlatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurorehabilitation of social dysfunctions: a model-based neurofeedback approach for low and high-functioning autism

2014

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an increasingly prevalent condition with core deficits in the social domain. Understanding its neuroetiology is critical to providing insights into the relationship between neuroanatomy, physiology and social behaviors, including imitation learning, language, empathy, theory of mind, and even self-awareness. Equally important is the need to find ways to arrest its increasing prevalence and to ameliorate its symptoms. In this review, we highlight neurofeedback studies as viable treatment options for high-functioning as well as low-functioning children with ASD. Lower-functioning groups have the greatest need for diagnosis and treatment, the greatest barrier to communication, and may experience the greatest benefit if a treatment can improve function or prevent progression of the disorder at an early stage. Therefore, we focus on neurofeedback interventions combined with other kinds of behavioral conditioning to induce neuroplastic changes that can address the full spectrum of the autism phenotype.

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Assessment of Neuroanatomical Endophenotypes of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Association With Characteristics of Individuals With Schizophrenia and the General Population

et al. 2023

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ImportanceAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with significant clinical, neuroanatomical, and genetic heterogeneity that limits precision diagnostics and treatment.ObjectiveTo assess distinct neuroanatomical dimensions of ASD using novel semisupervised machine learning methods and to test whether the dimensions can serve as endophenotypes also in non-ASD populations.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cross-sectional study used imaging data from the publicly available Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) repositories as the discovery cohort. The ABIDE sample included individuals diagnosed with ASD aged between 16 and 64 years and age- and sex-match typically developing individuals. Validation cohorts included individuals with schizophrenia from the Psychosis Heterogeneity Evaluated via Dimensional Neuroimaging (PHENOM) consortium and individuals from the UK Biobank to represent the general population. The multisite discovery cohort included 16 internationally distributed imaging sites. Analyses were performed between March 2021 and March 2022.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe trained semisupervised heterogeneity through discriminative analysis models were tested for reproducibility using extensive cross-validations. It was then applied to individuals from the PHENOM and the UK Biobank. It was hypothesized that neuroanatomical dimensions of ASD would display distinct clinical and genetic profiles and would be prominent also in non-ASD populations.ResultsHeterogeneity through discriminative analysis models trained on T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance images of 307 individuals with ASD (mean [SD] age, 25.4 [9.8] years; 273 [88.9%] male) and 362 typically developing control individuals (mean [SD] age, 25.8 [8.9] years; 309 [85.4%] male) revealed that a 3-dimensional scheme was optimal to capture the ASD neuroanatomy. The first dimension (A1: aginglike) was associated with smaller brain volume, lower cognitive function, and aging-related genetic variants (FOXO3; Z = 4.65; P = 1.62 × 10−6). The second dimension (A2: schizophrenialike) was characterized by enlarged subcortical volumes, antipsychotic medication use (Cohen d = 0.65; false discovery rate–adjusted P = .048), partially overlapping genetic, neuroanatomical characteristics to schizophrenia (n = 307), and significant genetic heritability estimates in the general population (n = 14 786; mean [SD] h2, 0.71 [0.04]; P &lt; 1 × 10−4). The third dimension (A3: typical ASD) was distinguished by enlarged cortical volumes, high nonverbal cognitive performance, and biological pathways implicating brain development and abnormal apoptosis (mean [SD] β, 0.83 [0.02]; P = 4.22 × 10−6).Conclusions and RelevanceThis cross-sectional study discovered 3-dimensional endophenotypic representation that may elucidate the heterogeneous neurobiological underpinnings of ASD to support precision diagnostics. The significant correspondence between A2 and schizophrenia indicates a possibility of identifying common biological mechanisms across the 2 mental health diagnoses.

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Age-Related Increase in Inferior Frontal Gyrus Activity and Social Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 93 publications

References 82 publications

Automatic facial responses to briefly presented emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Automatic facial responses to briefly presented emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Neurorehabilitation of social dysfunctions: a model-based neurofeedback approach for low and high-functioning autism

Assessment of Neuroanatomical Endophenotypes of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Association With Characteristics of Individuals With Schizophrenia and the General Population

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