Brain activity during facial processing in autism spectrum disorder: an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta‐analysis of neuroimaging studies

Costa, Cristiano; Cristea, Ioana A.; Bò, Elisa Dal; Melloni, Caterina; Gentili, Claudio

doi:10.1111/jcpp.13412

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…It has previously been suggested that differences in social brain activations between ASD and NC could be contributed by a lack of preference towards social stimuli (Philip et al, 2012 ), which cannot be ruled out in our meta-analysis. These findings are in line with previous ASD functional neuroimaging meta-analyses, which have reported the left amygdala as one of the differentially activated regions during emotion and face processing (Aoki et al, 2015 ; Costa et al, 2021 ) and social cognition (Patriquin et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Meta-analytic connectivity modelling of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in autism spectrum disorders

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Low

Fox

et al. 2023

Brain Imaging and Behavior

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Social and non-social deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) persist into adulthood and may share common regions of aberrant neural activations. The current meta-analysis investigated activation differences between ASD and neurotypical controls irrespective of task type. Activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses were performed to examine consistent hypo-activated and/or hyper-activated regions for all tasks combined, and for social and non-social tasks separately; meta-analytic connectivity modelling and behavioral/paradigm analyses were performed to examine co-activated regions and associated behaviors. One hundred studies (mean age range = 18–41 years) were included. For all tasks combined, the ASD group showed significant (p < .05) hypo-activation in one cluster around the left amygdala (peak − 26, -2, -20, volume = 1336 mm3, maximum ALE = 0.0327), and this cluster co-activated with two other clusters around the right cerebellum (peak 42, -56, -22, volume = 2560mm3, maximum ALE = 0.049) Lobule VI/Crus I and the left fusiform gyrus (BA47) (peak − 42, -46, -18, volume = 1616 mm3, maximum ALE = 0.046) and left cerebellum (peak − 42, -58, -20, volume = 1616mm3, maximum ALE = 0.033) Lobule VI/Crus I. While the left amygdala was associated with negative emotion (fear) (z = 3.047), the left fusiform gyrus/cerebellum Lobule VI/Crus I cluster was associated with language semantics (z = 3.724) and action observation (z = 3.077). These findings highlight the left amygdala as a region consistently hypo-activated in ASD and suggest the potential involvement of fusiform gyrus and cerebellum in social cognition in ASD. Future research should further elucidate if and how amygdala-fusiform/cerebellar connectivity relates to social and non-social cognition in adults with ASD.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Meta-analytic connectivity modelling of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in autism spectrum disorders

Goodwill

Low

Fox

et al. 2023

Brain Imaging and Behavior

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“…Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) technique is a metaanalysis method that calculates the consistency of statistically important focal points in experiments based on the probability distribution centered on the coordinates of each set of focal points (Costa et al, 2021). This approach has significant implications for studies with inconsistent findings because it can theoretically analyze the most stable changes in brain activity (Goodkind et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent functional changes of the episodic memory impairment in mild cognitive impairment: An ALE meta-analysis

Liang

Yuan

Xue

et al. 2022

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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BackgroundMild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered to be an intermediate stage between normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The earliest and most common symptom of MCI is impaired episodic memory. When episodic memory is impaired in MCI patients, specific functional changes occur in related brain areas. However, there is currently a lack of a unified conclusion on this change. Therefore, the purpose of this meta-analysis is to find MRI-specific functional changes in episodic memory in MCI patients.MethodsBased on three commonly used indicators of brain function: functional connectivity (FC), the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation /fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF/fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo), we systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science and Ovid related literature and conducted the strict screening. Then we use the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm to perform the coordinate-based meta-analysis.ResultsThrough strict screening, this meta-analysis finally included 21 related functional neuroimaging research articles. The final result displays that functional changes of episodic memory in MCI patients are mainly located in the parahippocampal gyrus, precuneus, posterior cingulate gyrus, cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and thalamus.ConclusionsThere are specific functional changes in episodic memory brain regions in MCI patients, and the brain functional network can regulate episodic memory through these brain regions. And these specific changes can assist in the early diagnosis of MCI, providing new ideas and directions for early identification and intervention in the process of MCI.

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“…The quality and risk of bias (RoB) of included studies were evaluated with a modified version of the Newcastle–Ottawa scale (mNOS), which adapted to fMRI data [ 11 ]. This version uses a different set of items adapted to fMRI studies [ 12 ]. Scores on the mNOS range from 0 to 11, with 0 to 3 considered indicative of high risk, 4 to 7 as intermediate, and 8 to 11 as low risk.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A total of 1297 publications were retrieved from initial search, among which 37 studies met the inclusion criteria (654 participants in the SAD groups and 594 participants in the control groups). There were 15 studies that adopted emotional faces as task stimuli [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], 8 that presented specific situations as task stimuli [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], and the other 14 employed other types of tasks [5,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. In total, the coordinates where SAD groups…”

Section: Characteristics Of the Included Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Neural Mechanism of Social Anxiety Disorder: A Meta-Analysis Based on fMRI Studies

Ruan

Yawen

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Objective: The present meta-analysis aimed to explore the cognitive and neural mechanism of social anxiety disorder (SAD) from a whole-brain view, and compare the differences in brain activations under different task paradigms. Methods: We searched Web of Science Core Collection and other databases with the keywords related to social anxiety, social phobia, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for comparing persons with SAD to healthy controls and used the activation likelihood estimation method. Thirty-seven papers met the inclusion criteria, including 15 with emotional faces as stimuli, 8 presenting specific situations as stimuli, and 14 using other types of tasks as stimuli. Among these papers, 654 participants were in the SAD group and 594 participants were in the control group with 335 activation increase points and 115 activation decrease points. Results: Whole-brain analysis showed that compared with healthy controls, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left anterior cingulate gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = −6, y = 22, z = 38; p < 0.001). Sub-group analysis based on task indicated that when performing tasks with emotional faces as stimuli, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left cerebellar slope and fusiform gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = −26, y = −68, z = −12; p < 0.001), and significantly higher activation of the right supramarginal gyrus and angular gyrus, than healthy controls (MNI coordinate: x = 58, y = −52, z = 30; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Individuals with social anxiety disorder show abnormal activation in the cingulate gyrus, which is responsible for the process of attention control, and task type can influence the activation pattern.

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Brain activity during facial processing in autism spectrum disorder: an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta‐analysis of neuroimaging studies

Cited by 17 publications

References 83 publications

Meta-analytic connectivity modelling of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in autism spectrum disorders

Meta-analytic connectivity modelling of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in autism spectrum disorders

Convergent functional changes of the episodic memory impairment in mild cognitive impairment: An ALE meta-analysis

Cognitive Neural Mechanism of Social Anxiety Disorder: A Meta-Analysis Based on fMRI Studies

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