IntroductionAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised by repetitive behaviour/interests, an impairment in reciprocal social interaction and communication. This implies the inadequate appreciation of socio-emotional cues and leads to a default in the responses to other people's emotions.ObjectivesDeficits in empathy have been described for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).AimsWe aim to investigate the described deficits in empathy in a group of people with ASD on a behavioural and a neuronal level.MethodsWe assessed neuronal activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during three different empathy tasks (“emotion-recognition”, “perspective-taking” and “affective-responsiveness”) of 12 adults with ASD and a matched group of healthy controls.ResultsSubjects with ASD did not have differences in affective responsiveness compared to healthy controls, but in emotion recognition and perspective taking. The reaction time was significantly longer in patients with ASD in all tasks. People with ASD showed a different pattern of brain activation in cortico-limbic areas during the empathy tasks compared to controlsConclusionOur findings of individuals with ASD having problems in emotions-recognition and in perspective taking are supported by previous results. These impairments are reflected by a different pattern of neuronal activation in several brain areas of individuals with ASD compared to controls. Although there are no differences in affective responsiveness in the ASD group a marked difference can be seen in the brain activation during this task. These findings might open up new avenues of intervention for individuals with ASD and their often described problems with empathy.

The human frontal operculum (FOp) is a brain region that covers parts of the ventral frontal cortex next to the insula. Functional imaging studies showed activations in this region in tasks related to language, somatosensory, and cognitive functions. While the precise cytoarchitectonic areas that correlate to these processes have not yet been revealed, earlier receptorarchitectonic analysis resulted in a detailed parcellation of the FOp. We complemented this analysis by a cytoarchitectonic study of a sample of ten postmortem brains and mapped the posterior FOp in serial, cell-body stained histological sections using image analysis and multivariate statistics. Three new areas were identified: Op5 represents the most posterior area, followed by Op6 and the most anterior region Op7. Areas Op5-Op7 approach the insula, up to the circular sulcus. Area 44 of Broca’s region, the most ventral part of premotor area 6, and parts of the parietal operculum are dorso-laterally adjacent to Op5-Op7. The areas did not show any interhemispheric or sex differences. Three-dimensional probability maps and a maximum probability map were generated in stereotaxic space, and then used, in a first proof-of-concept-study, for functional decoding and analysis of structural and functional connectivity. Functional decoding revealed different profiles of cytoarchitectonically identified Op5-Op7. While left Op6 was active in music cognition, right Op5 was involved in chewing/swallowing and sexual processing. Both areas showed activation during the exercise of isometric force in muscles. An involvement in the coordination of flexion/extension could be shown for the right Op6. Meta-analytic connectivity modeling revealed various functional connections of the FOp areas within motor and somatosensory networks, with the most evident connection with the music/language network for Op6 left. The new cytoarchitectonic maps are part of Julich-Brain, and publicly available to serve as a basis for future analyses of structural-functional relationships in this region.