Neural Activation to Emotional Faces in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autor/inn/en	Weng, Shih-Jen; Carrasco, Melisa; Swartz, Johnna R.; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Kurapati, Nikhil; Liberzon, Israel; Risi, Susan; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S.
Titel	Neural Activation to Emotional Faces in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52 (2011) 3, S.296-305 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0021-9630
DOI	10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02317.x
Schlagwörter	Control Groups; Reaction Time; Autism; Adolescents; Emotional Response; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Interpersonal Competence; Diagnostic Tests; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Comparative Analysis; Visual Stimuli; Attention; Age Differences; Gender Differences + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Reaktionsvermögen; Autismus; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; Emotionales Verhalten; Interpersonale Kompetenz; Diagnostic test; Diagnostischer Test; Aufmerksamkeit; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Geschlechterkonflikt
Abstract	Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve a core deficit in social functioning and impairments in the ability to recognize face emotions. In an emotional faces task designed to constrain group differences in attention, the present study used functional MRI to characterize activation in the amygdala, ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), and striatum, three structures involved in socio-emotional processing in adolescents with ASD. Methods: Twenty-two adolescents with ASD and 20 healthy adolescents viewed facial expressions (happy, fearful, sad and neutral) that were briefly presented (250 ms) during functional MRI acquisition. To monitor attention, subjects pressed a button to identify the gender of each face. Results: The ASD group showed greater activation to the faces relative to the control group in the amygdala, vPFC and striatum. Follow-up analyses indicated that the ASD relative to control group showed greater activation in the amygdala, vPFC and striatum (p less than 0.05 small volume corrected), particularly to sad faces. Moreover, in the ASD group, there was a negative correlation between developmental variables (age and pubertal status) and mean activation from the whole bilateral amygdala; younger adolescents showed greater activation than older adolescents. There were no group differences in accuracy or reaction time in the gender identification task. Conclusions: When group differences in attention to facial expressions were limited, adolescents with ASD showed greater activation in structures involved in socio-emotional processing. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10