Autism‐relevant traits interact with temporoparietal junction stimulation effects on social cognition: a high‐definition transcranial direct current stimulation and electroencephalography study

Abstract

The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is implicated in mental and emotional state attribution, processes associated with autism-relevant traits. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the TPJ can influence social-cognitive performance. However, associations with electrophysiology and autism-relevant traits remain relatively unexamined. This study had two aims: first, exploring links between Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores and social-cognitive performance; second, examining interactions between AQ scores and high-definition-tDCS (HD-tDCS) applied to the right TPJ in terms of mental/emotional state attribution and neurophysiological outcomes. Fifty-three participants completed mental/emotional state attribution tasks before and after HD-tDCS. Pre-stimulation mental state attribution accuracy was reduced in participants with higher AQ Switching scores. Cathodal stimulation was associated with reduced emotion attribution performance in participants with higher AQ Switching and AQ Social scores (the latter at trend-level). Anodal stimulation more frequently interacted with AQ Social scores in terms of neurophysiology, in particular regarding reduced delta power in the left compared to right TPJ, and trend-level positive interactions with P100 and P300 latencies during the emotion recognition task. Elements of attention/switching (AQ Switching) may subserve or underpin elements of social cognition (AQ Social), and cathodal and anodal stimulation may have differing effects depending on trait levels in these domains. This study makes an important and original contribution in terms of increasing understanding of how such trait-level variation might interact with the effects of tDCS and also extending previous studies with regard to understanding potential roles of the rTPJ in both attention and social cognition and how autism-relevant traits might influence TPJ function.

Neural and Psychological Predictors of Cognitive Enhancement and Impairment from Neurostimulation

“…For example, tDCS over dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex improved arithmetic performance in individuals with high anxiety but not for people with low mathematical anxiety . In case of TPJ stimulation, Donaldson and colleges demonstrate that autism‐relevant characteristics interact with the stimulation effect on social cognition, suggesting that the social trait might be a modulating variable of TPJ stimulation effect. Thus, in addition to the brain measures, we also collected two psychological indexes on social‐related personality traits (social trait), such as the degree of social phobia and autism …”

“…One notorious fact is that the tDCS effect are highly variable across different people . Many individual characteristics modulate the neurostimulation responsiveness, such as the baseline cognitive ability, personality traits, and age . The identical tDCS setting might even induce the opposite impact for different people.…”

“…In the case of TPJ stimulation, our results demonstrate that positive responder, who benefits from stimulation, scores higher on social‐related characteristics, such as the social phobia. The finding is consistent with a recent finding that autism‐relevant traits interact with temporoparietal junction stimulation effect on social cognition . Besides, our results validate a simple logistic model using the LI and the social‐related trait, which can identify positive responders with a reasonably good performance.…”

“…It would be ideal that the degree of social deficits was associated with the neurostimulation responsiveness, which could support the usage of noninvasive brain stimulation in clinical settings. The work of Donaldson and his colleagues manifests the association between autism trait and brain stimulation effect . Our results provide some further preliminary evidence.…”

Explorations and perspectives on the neurobiological bases of autism spectrum disorder

“…Donaldson et al . () use such an approach to test the influence of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the temporo‐parietal junction on social‐cognitive performance, and how this relates to Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores, which measure tendencies towards autistic traits in the neurotypical population. They also used ERP and EEG frequency analyses to directly assess the effects of electrical stimulation on neural processing.…”