Inhibitory Control in High-Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and Underconnectivity in Inhibition Networks

Abstract

Background: Inhibiting prepotent responses is critical to optimal cognitive and behavioral function across many domains. Several behavioral studies have investigated response inhibition in autism, and the findings varied according to the components involved in inhibition. There has been only one published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study so far on inhibition in autism, which found greater activation in participants with autism than control participants.

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).…”

“…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). Because EF comprises several individual processes, these conflicting results might be due in part to differences in the specific components of EF being tested within each study.…”

Sensory Sensitivities and Performance on Sensory Perceptual Tasks in High-functioning Individuals with Autism

“…The elementary sensory-higher cortical sensory dichotomy is also consistent with the pattern of dichotomous deficits reported in the motor, memory, language, and abstraction domains in studies of the profile of neuropsychologic functioning in high functioning individuals with autism (Minshew, Goldstein, & Siegel, 1997;Williams, Goldstein & Minshew, 2006) and of the impairments in integration of information causing postural instability (Minshew, Sung, Jones, & Furman, 2004). Functional imaging studies using social, language, and reasoning tasks have provided evidence of a generalized pattern of underdevelopment of the higher-order circuitry necessary for these tasks Just et al, 2004;Just et al, 2007;Kana et al, 2006Kana et al, , 2007Koshino et al, 2007;Minshew, Sweeney, & Luna, 2002). The presence of the same pattern of elementary ability-higher ability dissociation in the sensory and motor domains as in the memory, language and abstraction domains suggests that the sensory and motor impairments are involved by the same neurobiological process as the triad of signs and symptoms on which the diagnosis is based.…”

Brain dynamics in ASD during movie‐watching show idiosyncratic functional integration and segregation

“…Accordingly, coordinated processing between separate brain regions, known as functional connectivity (FC), that is, typically quantified by correlational measures of statistical interdependency (Friston, 1994), has been assessed in resting‐state (Di Martino et al, 2014; Gotts et al, 2012; Supekar et al, 2013) and in a variety of tasks probing speech comprehension (Just, Cherkassky, Keller, & Minshew, 2004), visuomotor performance (Mizuno, Villalobos, Davies, Dahl, & Müller, 2006; Turner, Frost, Linsenbardt, McIlroy, & Müller, 2006; Villalobos, Mizuno, Dahl, Kemmotsu, & Müller, 2005), visuospatial abilities (Damarla et al, 2010; Liu, Cherkassky, Minshew, & Just, 2011), face processing (Kleinhans et al, 2008; Rudie et al, 2012), or executive functions (Just, Cherkassky, Keller, Kana, & Minshew, 2007; Kana, Keller, Minshew, & Just, 2007; Koshino et al, 2008). The big picture emerging from those reports is lowered FC between frontal and posterior brain regions (see Vissers, Cohen, & Geurts, 2012 for a review), as formulated in the underconnectivity theory of autism (Just, Keller, Malave, Kana, & Varma, 2012).…”