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Hard to "tune in"

Hard to "tune in"
Hard to "tune in"
Persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to have difficulty in eye contact (EC). This may make it difficult for their partners during face to face communication with them. To elucidate the neural substrates of live inter-subject interaction of ASD patients and normal subjects, we conducted hyper-scanning functional MRI with 21 subjects with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) paired with typically-developed (normal) subjects, and with 19 pairs of normal subjects as a control. Baseline EC was maintained while subjects performed real-time joint-attention task. The task-related effects were modeled out, and inter-individual correlation analysis was performed on the residual time-course data. ASD-Normal pairs were less accurate at detecting gaze direction than Normal-Normal pairs. Performance was impaired both in ASD subjects and in their normal partners. The left occipital pole (OP) activation by gaze processing was reduced in ASD subjects, suggesting that deterioration of eye-cue detection in ASD is related to impairment of early visual processing of gaze. On the other hand, their normal partners showed greater activity in the bilateral occipital cortex and the right prefrontal area, indicating a compensatory workload. Inter-brain coherence in the right IFG that was observed in the Normal-Normal pairs (Saito et al., 2010) during EC diminished in ASD-Normal pairs. Intra-brain functional connectivity between the right IFG and right superior temporal sulcus (STS) in normal subjects paired with ASD subjects was reduced compared with in Normal-Normal pairs. This functional connectivity was positively correlated with performance of the normal partners on the eye-cue detection. Considering the integrative role of the right STS in gaze processing, inter-subject synchronization during EC may be a prerequisite for eye cue detection by the normal partner.
1662-5161
268
Tanabe, Hiroki C
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Kosaka, Hirotaka
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Saito, Daisuke N
bdac05b7-1eb4-4204-ae7c-f3bba7a2bbe3
Koike, Takahiko
edb4dfa1-b32c-4b2e-8988-6c22a920553f
Hayashi, Masamichi J
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Izuma, Keise
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Komeda, Hidetsugu
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Ishitobi, Makoto
d83c2154-a695-4905-ad79-20ceb5b14541
Omori, Masao
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Munesue, Toshio
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Okazawa, Hidehiko
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Wada, Yuji
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Sadato, Norihiro
69c6e9f6-6b63-4393-b228-a913173f285b
Tanabe, Hiroki C
631c1772-e4ea-46e5-859e-5efe2da499e4
Kosaka, Hirotaka
f84d6645-9805-4375-9fc5-1b43c8b9997d
Saito, Daisuke N
bdac05b7-1eb4-4204-ae7c-f3bba7a2bbe3
Koike, Takahiko
edb4dfa1-b32c-4b2e-8988-6c22a920553f
Hayashi, Masamichi J
6cc0ed2a-f7fb-4200-b9c6-40bcffb6c930
Izuma, Keise
67894464-b2eb-4834-9727-c2a870587e5a
Komeda, Hidetsugu
9f3727bc-0f46-4026-be87-674e9860dc8a
Ishitobi, Makoto
d83c2154-a695-4905-ad79-20ceb5b14541
Omori, Masao
68a0fa43-5d7b-4691-9a13-aea64713d5e8
Munesue, Toshio
d4babae5-699c-4a71-aa94-06254e4cfa69
Okazawa, Hidehiko
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Wada, Yuji
9f468e05-b082-4dd7-a50b-6e32ba8725e7
Sadato, Norihiro
69c6e9f6-6b63-4393-b228-a913173f285b

Tanabe, Hiroki C, Kosaka, Hirotaka, Saito, Daisuke N, Koike, Takahiko, Hayashi, Masamichi J, Izuma, Keise, Komeda, Hidetsugu, Ishitobi, Makoto, Omori, Masao, Munesue, Toshio, Okazawa, Hidehiko, Wada, Yuji and Sadato, Norihiro (2012) Hard to "tune in". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 268. (doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00268).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to have difficulty in eye contact (EC). This may make it difficult for their partners during face to face communication with them. To elucidate the neural substrates of live inter-subject interaction of ASD patients and normal subjects, we conducted hyper-scanning functional MRI with 21 subjects with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) paired with typically-developed (normal) subjects, and with 19 pairs of normal subjects as a control. Baseline EC was maintained while subjects performed real-time joint-attention task. The task-related effects were modeled out, and inter-individual correlation analysis was performed on the residual time-course data. ASD-Normal pairs were less accurate at detecting gaze direction than Normal-Normal pairs. Performance was impaired both in ASD subjects and in their normal partners. The left occipital pole (OP) activation by gaze processing was reduced in ASD subjects, suggesting that deterioration of eye-cue detection in ASD is related to impairment of early visual processing of gaze. On the other hand, their normal partners showed greater activity in the bilateral occipital cortex and the right prefrontal area, indicating a compensatory workload. Inter-brain coherence in the right IFG that was observed in the Normal-Normal pairs (Saito et al., 2010) during EC diminished in ASD-Normal pairs. Intra-brain functional connectivity between the right IFG and right superior temporal sulcus (STS) in normal subjects paired with ASD subjects was reduced compared with in Normal-Normal pairs. This functional connectivity was positively correlated with performance of the normal partners on the eye-cue detection. Considering the integrative role of the right STS in gaze processing, inter-subject synchronization during EC may be a prerequisite for eye cue detection by the normal partner.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 10 September 2012
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 September 2012
Published date: 2012

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 425209
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/425209
ISSN: 1662-5161
PURE UUID: d4bf43d7-5fc6-4880-bc0d-e20e4adc800f

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Date deposited: 11 Oct 2018 16:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 22:04

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Contributors

Author: Hiroki C Tanabe
Author: Hirotaka Kosaka
Author: Daisuke N Saito
Author: Takahiko Koike
Author: Masamichi J Hayashi
Author: Keise Izuma
Author: Hidetsugu Komeda
Author: Makoto Ishitobi
Author: Masao Omori
Author: Toshio Munesue
Author: Hidehiko Okazawa
Author: Yuji Wada
Author: Norihiro Sadato

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