Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity
Abstract The superior temporal sulcus (STS) forms a key region for social information processing and disruptions of its function have been associated with socio-communicative impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Task-based fMRI was applied in 15 adults with ASD and 15 match...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05786-z |
| _version_ | 1818752483031252992 |
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| author | Kaat Alaerts Stephan P. Swinnen Nicole Wenderoth |
| author_facet | Kaat Alaerts Stephan P. Swinnen Nicole Wenderoth |
| author_sort | Kaat Alaerts |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The superior temporal sulcus (STS) forms a key region for social information processing and disruptions of its function have been associated with socio-communicative impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Task-based fMRI was applied in 15 adults with ASD and 15 matched typical-controls (TC) to explore differences in activity and effective connectivity of STS while discriminating either ‘intact’ versus ‘scrambled’ biological motion point light displays (explicit processing) or responding to a color-change while the ‘intact’ versus ‘scrambled’ nature of the stimulus was irrelevant for the task (implicit processing). STS responded stronger to ‘intact’ than ‘scrambled’ stimuli in both groups, indicating that the basic encoding of ‘biological’ versus ‘non-biological’ motion seems to be intact in ASD. Only in the TC-group however, explicit attention to the biological motion content induced an augmentation of STS-activity, which was not observed in the ASD-group. Overall, these findings suggest an inadequacy to recruit STS upon task demand in ASD, rather than a generalized alteration in STS neural processing. The importance of attention orienting for recruiting relevant neural resources was further underlined by the observation that connectivity between STS and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key region in attention regulation, effectively modulated STS-recruitment in the ASD-group. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T04:52:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6d82c432a5e441d4a77a6e5c2f55c848 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T04:52:10Z |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-6d82c432a5e441d4a77a6e5c2f55c8482022-12-21T21:20:23ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222017-07-017111310.1038/s41598-017-05786-zNeural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivityKaat Alaerts0Stephan P. Swinnen1Nicole Wenderoth2Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Group Biomedical Sciences, Neuromotor Rehabilitation Research Group, University of LeuvenDepartment of Kinesiology, Group Biomedical Sciences, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, University of LeuvenDepartment of Health Sciences and Technology, Neural Control of Movement LabAbstract The superior temporal sulcus (STS) forms a key region for social information processing and disruptions of its function have been associated with socio-communicative impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Task-based fMRI was applied in 15 adults with ASD and 15 matched typical-controls (TC) to explore differences in activity and effective connectivity of STS while discriminating either ‘intact’ versus ‘scrambled’ biological motion point light displays (explicit processing) or responding to a color-change while the ‘intact’ versus ‘scrambled’ nature of the stimulus was irrelevant for the task (implicit processing). STS responded stronger to ‘intact’ than ‘scrambled’ stimuli in both groups, indicating that the basic encoding of ‘biological’ versus ‘non-biological’ motion seems to be intact in ASD. Only in the TC-group however, explicit attention to the biological motion content induced an augmentation of STS-activity, which was not observed in the ASD-group. Overall, these findings suggest an inadequacy to recruit STS upon task demand in ASD, rather than a generalized alteration in STS neural processing. The importance of attention orienting for recruiting relevant neural resources was further underlined by the observation that connectivity between STS and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key region in attention regulation, effectively modulated STS-recruitment in the ASD-group.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05786-z |
| spellingShingle | Kaat Alaerts Stephan P. Swinnen Nicole Wenderoth Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity Scientific Reports |
| title | Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| title_full | Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| title_fullStr | Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| title_short | Neural processing of biological motion in autism: An investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| title_sort | neural processing of biological motion in autism an investigation of brain activity and effective connectivity |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05786-z |
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