The orbitofrontal–amygdala circuit and self-regulation of social–emotional behavior in autism

Bachevalier, Jocelyne; Loveland, Katherine A.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.07.002

Cited by 351 publications

(289 citation statements)

References 238 publications

(228 reference statements)

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“…An alternative explanation is a deficit in the medial prefrontal cortex itself. Indeed, the prefrontal cortex was suggested to be crucially affected in autism (Bachevalier and Loveland, 2006). A recent study however indicates that the medial prefrontal cortex is also hyperreactive and hyperplastic in VPA-treated offspring (TR & HM, unpublished data), suggesting that the failure in extinction may be more related to a loss of inhibition in the amygdala.…”

Section: Indirect Effects Of Non-amygdala Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current 'amygdala theory of autism' is based on the lost capability to evaluate socioemotional information and lost drive for social interaction derived from lesioning studies in monkeys and a few functional imaging studies in humans (Baron-Cohen et al, 2000;Sweeten et al, 2002;Pelphrey et al, 2004;Bachevalier and Loveland, 2006;Schultz, 2005), which implies that a hypofunctioning amygdala underlies autism.…”

Section: A Novel Role Suggested For the Amygdala In Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Abnormal Fear Conditioning and Amygdala Processing in an Animal Model of Autism

Markram

Rinaldi

Mendola

et al. 2007

Neuropsychopharmacol

328

262

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A core feature of autism spectrum disorders is the impairment in social interactions. Among other brain regions, a deficit in amygdala processing has been suggested to underlie this impairment, but whether the amygdala is processing fear abnormally in autism, is yet not clear. We used the valproic acid (VPA) rat model of autism to (a) screen for autism-like symptoms in rats, (b) test for alterations in amygdala-dependent fear processing, and (c) evaluate neuronal reactivity and synaptic plasticity in the lateral amygdala by means of in vitro single-cell electrophysiological recordings. VPA-treated animals displayed several symptoms common to autism, among them impaired social interactions and increased repetitive behaviors. Furthermore, VPA-treated rats were more anxious and exhibited abnormally high and longer lasting fear memories, which were overgeneralized and harder to extinguish. On the cellular level, the amygdala was hyperreactive to electrical stimulation and displayed boosted synaptic plasticity as well as a deficit in inhibition. We show for the first time enhanced, overgeneralized and resistant conditioned fear memories in an animal model of autism. Such hyperfear could be caused by the hyperreactivity and hyperplasticity found in the lateral amygdala, which may in turn be due to a deficit in the inhibitory system of the amygdala. We hypothesize an 'aversive world' syndrome that could, even if not a primary cause of the disorder itself, underlie some core symptoms in autism, such as impairments in social interactions and resistance to rehabilitation.

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Section: Indirect Effects Of Non-amygdala Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Novel Role Suggested For the Amygdala In Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abnormal Fear Conditioning and Amygdala Processing in an Animal Model of Autism

Markram

Rinaldi

Mendola

et al. 2007

Neuropsychopharmacol

328

262

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Whereas Schultz's model highlights the amygdala's role in social perception deficits in autism, Bachevalier and Loveland (2006) focus on developmental abnormalities in the amygdala in relation to the regulation of social behavior, that is, "the ability to select and initiate complex behaviors in response to the specific conditions of the social environment" (Bachevalier & Loveland,p. 98).…”

Section: Social Information Processing In Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intact emotion facilitation for nonsocial stimuli in autism: Is amygdala impairment in autism specific for social information?

South

Ozonoff

Suchy

et al. 2007

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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Atypical amygdala development may play a key role in the emergence of social disability and other symptoms of autism (Baron-Cohen et al., 2000;Schultz, 2005). The mechanisms by which this may occur have received little attention, however, and most support from behavioral and imaging studies has been concerned with socially relevant stimuli such as faces. Given the complexity of amygdala function and its known role in many other emotional tasks, we examined whether individuals with autism would demonstrate impaired performance on several tasks that have been shown to require activation of the amygdala but that do not have any explicit social meaning. Relative to a typical comparison group matched for age and IQ, our sample of 37 adolescents and adults with autism (mean age 5 19.7 years) demonstrated equivalent facilitation for perception and learning of emotionally relevant stimuli. On each of four tasks, there were significant main effects of emotion condition on performance for both groups. Future research regarding atypical amygdala function and emotion processing in autism should consider whether the response to nonsocial emotion factors (including negative valence or high arousal) may be intact, despite difficulties in responding to socially relevant stimuli. (JINS, 2008, 14, 42-54.)

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“…Moreover, neural approaches implicating the frontal lobes in the neuropathology of ASD would lead to the prediction that such individuals would have an increased tendency to confabulate (e.g. Bachevalier & Loveland, 2006;Dornburg & McDaniel, 2006;Kopelman, Guinan, & Lewis, 1995;Moscovitch & Melo, 1997;Parkin, 1997; Schacter, Kagan & Leichtman, 1995; Stuss, Alexander, Lieberman, & Levine, 1978; Turner, Cipolotti, Yousry, & Shallice, 2008).As this brief overview suggests, there are several reasons why one might expect individuals with ASD to experience difficulties in recalling witnessed events. What is less apparent is whether this pattern of difficulties may adversely affect the efficacy of CI techniques with witnesses with ASD.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, based on the implication of frontal lobe involvement in the pathology underlying ASD (e.g. Bachevalier & Loveland, 2006), one might even speculate that the use of mnemonic strategies may elicit an unusual number of confabulations and inaccurate details in individuals with ASD.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cognitive Interview for Eyewitnesses with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Maras

Bowler

2010

J Autism Dev Disord

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. The cognitive interview for witnesses with autism spectrum disorder Eyewitness evidence is central to the criminal justice system. In 2007, 1.78 million UK offenders were found guilty or cautioned (UK Ministry of Justice, UK, 2008) and 87% of police officers indicated that eyewitnesses usually or always provided major investigative leads (Kebbell & Milne, 1998). Inaccurate or incomplete testimony can lead to wrongful conviction or acquittal (Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, 1996) and so reliable interviewing techniques are imperative in eliciting the most detailed yet accurate reports from witnesses. The Cognitive Interview (CI) is now one of the most widely used and accepted forms of interviewing in both the US and the UK (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992;Geiselman, 1984), and is currently taught to all police recruits in the UK (Dando & Milne, 2009). The CI has been shown to elicit detailed, yet accurate, reports from adult witnesses (Davis, McMahon & Greenwood, 2005;Kohnken, Milne, Memon & Bull, 1999), children (Geiselman & Padilla, 1988;Memon, Wark, Bull & Koehnken, 1997), older witnesses (Wright & Holliday, 2007b) and witnesses with learning disabilities (referred to in the US as mental retardation) (Milne, Clare & Bull, 1999 The Cognitive Interview (CI) is based on two basic principles of how memory typically operates; that retrieval of an event will be enhanced if the context experienced at recall matches that experienced during encoding (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992;Roediger, Weldon, Challis, & Craik, 1989; Tulving & Thompson, 1973), and that memories are stored as interconnected nodes that provide multiple retrieval routes (Tulving, 1974). On the basis of these principles the CI was the external (physical) and internal (subjective) states that they experienced during the witnessed event before freely reporting as many details of the event as possible. Permanent repository link:Recall of trivial or incomplete details is encouraged ('report all' instruction) since important facts may be elicited that co-occurred with seemingly unimportant events (Geiselman, Fisher, Mackinnon, & Holland, 1986). CR is followed by QU in whichwitnesses are asked open-ended questions based on what they said during their first free-recall attempt. Further details are elicited by asking witnesses to summon and describe mental images of the event, for example focusing on the best image they have of the victim in order to describe their clothing. During CO witnesses are then asked to recall the events in a different order, for example starting with the last thing they witnessed and working backwards in detail until they report the first thing they witnessed. Finally, the witness is asked to recall the event from a different perspective (CP), for example from the perspective of another person or imagining they were positioned in a different location (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992). All four of these mnemonic strategies elicit more detai...

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The orbitofrontal–amygdala circuit and self-regulation of social–emotional behavior in autism

Cited by 351 publications

References 238 publications

Abnormal Fear Conditioning and Amygdala Processing in an Animal Model of Autism

Abnormal Fear Conditioning and Amygdala Processing in an Animal Model of Autism

Intact emotion facilitation for nonsocial stimuli in autism: Is amygdala impairment in autism specific for social information?

The Cognitive Interview for Eyewitnesses with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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