Reduced Neural Habituation in the Amygdala and Social Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Kleinhans, Natalia M.; Johnson, L. Clark; Richards, Todd L.; Mahurin, Roderick K.; Greenson, Jessica; Dawson, Geraldine; Aylward, Elizabeth H.

doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07101681

Cited by 231 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Histological studies also showed numerical reductions in amygdala axons (Schumann & Amaral, 2006) and reduced cell sizes in the hippocampus, similar to what is seen in the case of a precocious maturation (Bauman & Kemper, 2005). The two cerebral formations are involved in emotional and memory process development, two aspects typically targeted by autism spectrum disorders (Kleinhans et al, 2009;Saitoh et al, 2001). The use of MRI-DTI for the microstructural analysis of pathways interconnecting hippocampus and amygdala with the mid-fusiform gyrus in the temporal lobe (which participates in number, word, color and physiognomy recognition) revealed dysfunctionalities of these connections in autistic subjects which took a face recognition test (Conturo et al, 2008).…”

Section: Wwwintechopencomsupporting

confidence: 61%

Clinical Evaluations on the Diagnosis of Autism

Dobre¹,

Stoica²

2011

Autism - A Neurodevelopmental Journey From Genes to Behaviour

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Section: Wwwintechopencomsupporting

confidence: 61%

Clinical Evaluations on the Diagnosis of Autism

Dobre¹,

Stoica²

2011

Autism - A Neurodevelopmental Journey From Genes to Behaviour

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“…6,7,11 Moreover, in another study, participants with ASD and controls both showed amygdala activation in response to faces, but the ASD participants showed less habituation in the amygdala. 47 To build a coherent model of ASD and brain function, it is important that aspects of the task, such as the cognitive elements and habituation rates, be considered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural circuitry of emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorders

Monk

Weng

Wiggins

et al. 2010

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212

155

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Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with severe impairments in social functioning. Because faces provide nonverbal cues that support social interactions, many studies of ASD have examined neural structures that process faces, including the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and superior and middle temporal gyri. However, increases or decreases in activation are often contingent on the cognitive task. Specifically, the cognitive domain of attention influences group differences in brain activation. We investigated brain function abnormalities in participants with ASD using a task that monitored attention bias to emotional faces. Methods: Twenty-four participants (12 with ASD, 12 controls) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study while performing an attention cuing task with emotional (happy, sad, angry) and neutral faces. Results: In response to emotional faces, those in the ASD group showed greater right amygdala activation than those in the control group. A preliminary psychophysiological connectivity analysis showed that ASD participants had stronger positive right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex coupling and weaker positive right amygdala and temporal lobe coupling than controls. There were no group differences in the behavioural measure of attention bias to the emotional faces. Limitations: The small sample size may have affected our ability to detect additional group differences. Conclusion: When attention bias to emotional faces was equivalent between ASD and control groups, ASD was associated with greater amygdala activation. Preliminary analyses showed that ASD participants had stronger connectivity between the amygdala ventromedial prefrontal cortex (a network implicated in emotional modulation) and weaker connectivity between the amygdala and temporal lobe (a pathway involved in the identification of facial expressions, although areas of group differences were generally in a more anterior region of the temporal lobe than what is typically reported for emotional face processing). These alterations in connectivity are consistent with emotion and face processing disturbances in ASD.

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“…Kleinhans et al (2009) showed that repeated exposure to faces resulted in significantly reduced activation of the amygdala in typical adults but this neural adaptation was attenuated in adults with autism. Additional research is needed to clarify whether differences in face adaptation are also observed in relatives of children with autism in both the amygdala and other key ''face areas'' (e.g., the fusiform gyrus) and how they relate to behavioural performance in face processing tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced face identity aftereffects in relatives of children with autism

et al. 2012

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a b s t r a c tAutism is a pervasive developmental condition with complex aetiology. To aid the discovery of genetic mechanisms, researchers have turned towards identifying potential endophenotypes -subtle neurobiological or neurocognitive traits present in individuals with autism and their ''unaffected'' relatives. Previous research has shown that relatives of individuals with autism exhibit face processing atypicalities, which are similar in nature albeit of lesser degree, to those found in children and adults with autism. Yet very few studies have examined the underlying mechanisms responsible for such atypicalities. Here, we investigated whether atypicalities in adaptive norm-based coding of faces are present in relatives of children with autism, similar to those previously reported in children with autism. To test this possibility, we administered a face identity aftereffect task in which adaptation to a particular face biases perception towards the opposite identity, so that a previously neutral face (i.e., the average face) takes on the computationally opposite identity. Parents and siblings of individuals with autism showed smaller aftereffects compared to parents and siblings of typically developing children, especially so when the adapting stimuli were located further away from the average face. In addition, both groups showed stronger aftereffects for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average. These results suggest that, in relatives of children with autism, face-coding mechanism are similar (i.e., norm-based) but less efficient than in relatives of typical children. This finding points towards the possibility that diminished adaptive mechanisms might represent a neurocognitive endophenotype for autism.

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Reduced Neural Habituation in the Amygdala and Social Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract: These results suggest amygdala hyperarousal in autism spectrum disorders in response to socially relevant stimuli. Further, sustained amygdala arousal may contribute to the social deficits observed in autism spectrum disorders.

Cited by 231 publications

References 40 publications

Clinical Evaluations on the Diagnosis of Autism

Clinical Evaluations on the Diagnosis of Autism

Neural circuitry of emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorders

Reduced face identity aftereffects in relatives of children with autism

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