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Ouerfelli-Ethier J, Comtois Bona I, Fournet R, Pisella L, Khan AZ. Pre-saccadic attention relies more on suppression than does covert attention. J Vis 2023; 23:1. [PMID: 36595283 PMCID: PMC9819743 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.1.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
During covert and pre-saccadic attentional shifts, it is unclear how facilitation and suppression processes interact for target selection. A recent countermanding task pointed to greater suppression at unattended locations during trials with saccades compared to trials without saccades (i.e., fixation and successful stop trials), whereas target facilitation did not differ. It is unknown whether this finding is restricted to countermanding paradigms that involve inhibitory processes. To test this, we adapted Gaspelin and colleagues (2015)'s attention capture task where, within the same block, one location was primed with frequent line discrimination trials, and all locations were occasionally probed using letters report trials. Participants also performed a baseline condition without priming. We tested 15 participants and examined how performance at non-primed locations was affected by covert versus pre-saccadic attention in blocks of four or six items, as well as by position from the primed location and timing from saccade onset. For both attention conditions, letter report at non-primed locations was worse compared to baseline, demonstrating suppression, and letter report at primed location was better, demonstrating facilitation. In saccades trials, letter report was better at primed locations and worse at non-primed locations compared to fixation trials. The timing of this additional pre-saccadic suppression differed from saccadic suppression. In both attention conditions, suppression was greater when primed and non-primed locations were within the same hemifield or in diagonal opposite quadrants. These results confirmed that attention preceding saccade execution suppressed non-primed locations to a larger extent than covert attention, with the same spatial quadrant effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Ouerfelli-Ethier
- School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.,Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Trajectoires team, University of Lyon I Claude-Bernard, Bron, France.,
| | | | - Romain Fournet
- School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.,
| | - Laure Pisella
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Trajectoires team, University of Lyon I Claude-Bernard, Bron, France.,
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Paul S, Arora A, Midha R, Vu D, Roy PK, Belmonte MK. Autistic traits and individual brain differences: functional network efficiency reflects attentional and social impairments, structural nodal efficiencies index systemising and theory-of-mind skills. Mol Autism 2021; 12:3. [PMID: 33478557 PMCID: PMC7818759 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-020-00377-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Autism is characterised not only by impaired social cognitive 'empathising' but also by superior rule-based 'systemising'. These cognitive domains intertwine within the categorical diagnosis of autism, yet behavioural genetics suggest largely independent heritability, and separable brain mechanisms. We sought to determine whether quantitative behavioural measures of autistic traits are dimensionally associated with structural and functional brain network integrity, and whether brain bases of autistic traits vary independently across individuals. METHODS Thirty right-handed neurotypical adults (12 females) were administered psychometric (Social Responsiveness Scale, Autism Spectrum Quotient and Systemising Quotient) and behavioural (Attention Network Test and theory-of-mind reaction time) measures of autistic traits, and structurally (diffusion tensor imaging) and functionally (500 s of 2 Hz eyes-closed resting fMRI) derived graph-theoretic measures of efficiency of information integration were computed throughout the brain and within subregions. RESULTS Social impairment was positively associated with functional efficiency (r = .47, p = .006), globally and within temporo-parietal and prefrontal cortices. Delayed orienting of attention likewise was associated with greater functional efficiency (r = - .46, p = .0133). Systemising was positively associated with global structural efficiency (r = .38, p = 0.018), driven specifically by temporal pole; theory-of-mind reaction time was related to structural efficiency (r = - .40, p = 0.0153) within right supramarginal gyrus. LIMITATIONS Interpretation of these relationships is complicated by the many senses of the term 'connectivity', including functional, structural and computational; by the approximation inherent in group functional anatomical parcellations when confronted with individual variation in functional anatomy; and by the validity, sensitivity and specificity of the several survey and experimental behavioural measures applied as correlates of brain structure and function. CONCLUSIONS Functional connectivities highlight distributed networks associated with domain-general properties such as attentional orienting and social cognition broadly, associating more impaired behaviour with more efficient brain networks that may reflect heightened feedforward information flow subserving autistic strengths and deficits alike. Structural connectivity results highlight specific anatomical nodes of convergence, reflecting cognitive and neuroanatomical independence of systemising and theory-of-mind. In addition, this work shows that individual differences in theory-of-mind related to brain structure can be measured behaviourally, and offers neuroanatomical evidence to pin down the slippery construct of 'systemising' as the capacity to construct invariant contextual associations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Subhadip Paul
- MIND Research Network, 1101 Yale Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA.,National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India
| | - Aditi Arora
- National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India.,Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Universität Salzburg, Kapitelgasse 4-6, 5020, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Rashi Midha
- National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India.,National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Hosur Road, Bangalore, 560029, India
| | - Dinh Vu
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Harald Schjelderups hus, Forskningsveien 3A, 0373, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Psychology, Chaucer Bldg., Nottingham Trent University, Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK
| | - Prasun K Roy
- National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India.,School of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - Matthew K Belmonte
- National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India. .,Department of Psychology, Chaucer Bldg., Nottingham Trent University, Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK. .,The Com DEALL Trust, 224, 6th 'A' Main Road, near Specialist Hospital, 2nd Block, HRBR Layout, Bangalore, 560043, India.
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3
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Beume LA, Rijntjes M, Dressing A, Kaller CP, Hieber M, Martin M, Kirsch S, Kümmerer D, Urbach H, Umarova RM, Weiller C. Dissociation of visual extinction and neglect in the left hemisphere. Cortex 2020; 129:211-222. [PMID: 32505793 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2019] [Revised: 04/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Visual neglect and extinction are two distinct visuospatial attention deficits that frequently occur after right hemisphere cerebral stroke. However, their different lesion profiles remain a matter of debate. In the left hemisphere, a domain-general dual-loop model with distinct computational abilities onto which several cognitive functions may project, has been proposed: a dorsal stream for sensori-motor mapping in time and space and a ventral stream for comprehension and representation of concepts. We wondered whether such a distinction may apply to visual extinction and neglect in left hemisphere lesions. Of 165 prospectively studied patients with acute left hemispheric ischemic stroke with a single lesion on MRI, 122 had no visuospatial attention deficit, 10 had extinction, 31 neglect and 2 had both, visual extinction and neglect. Voxel-based-lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM, FDR<.05) showed a clear anatomical dissociation. Extinction occurred after damage to the parietal cortex (anterior bank of the intraparietal sulcus, inferior parietal lobe, and supramarginal gyrus), while visual neglect occurred after damage mainly to the temporal lobe (superior and middle temporal lobe, anterior temporal pole), inferior ventral premotor cortex, frontal operculum, angular gyrus, and insula. Direct comparison of both conditions linked extinction to intraparietal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus (FDR<.05). Thus, in the left hemisphere extinction seems to be related to dorsal stream lesions, whereas neglect maps more on the ventral stream. These data cannot be generalized to the right hemisphere. However, a domain-general point-of-view may stimulate discussion on visuospatial attention processing also in the right hemisphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena-Alexandra Beume
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Michel Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Andrea Dressing
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Christoph P Kaller
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Maren Hieber
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Markus Martin
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Simon Kirsch
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Dorothee Kümmerer
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Horst Urbach
- Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Department of Neuroradiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Roza M Umarova
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Cornelius Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
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Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over Prefrontal Cortex on Attention in Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review. J Clin Med 2019; 8:jcm8040416. [PMID: 30934685 PMCID: PMC6518000 DOI: 10.3390/jcm8040416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Revised: 03/10/2019] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be effective for enhancing cognitive functioning. In this review, we aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of rTMS on attention in psychiatric diseases. In particular, we searched PubMed and Embase to examine the effectiveness of rTMS administered to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on this specific cognitive domain. The search identified 24 articles, 21 of which met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among them, nine were conducted in patients with depression, four in patients with schizophrenia, three in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), two in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, one each in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in patients with alcohol or methamphetamine addiction. No evidence for cognitive adverse effects was found in all the included rTMS studies. Several studies showed a significant improvement of attentional function in patients with depression and schizophrenia. The beneficial effects on attention and other executive functions suggest that rTMS has the potential to target core features of ASD. rTMS may influence the attentional networks in alcohol-dependent and other addicted patients. We also reviewed and discussed the studies assessing the effects of rTMS on attention in the healthy population. This review suggests that prefrontal rTMS could exert procognitive effects on attention in patients with many psychiatric disorders.
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5
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Engagement of the motor system in position monitoring: reduced distractor suppression and effects of internal representation quality on motor kinematics. Exp Brain Res 2018; 236:1445-1460. [PMID: 29546652 PMCID: PMC5937884 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5234-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2017] [Accepted: 03/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The position monitoring task is a measure of divided spatial attention in which participants track the changing positions of one or more objects, attempting to represent positions with as much precision as possible. Typically precision of representations declines with each target object added to participants’ attention load. Since the motor system requires precise representations of changing target positions, we investigated whether position monitoring would be facilitated by increasing engagement of the motor system. Using motion capture, we recorded the positions of participants’ index finger during pointing responses. Participants attempted to monitor the changing positions of between one and four target discs as they moved randomly around a large projected display. After a period of disc motion, all discs disappeared and participants were prompted to report the final position of one of the targets, either by mouse click or by pointing to the final perceived position on the screen. For mouse click responses, precision declined with attentional load. For pointing responses, precision declined only up to three targets and remained at the same level for four targets, suggesting obligatory attention to all four objects for loads above two targets. Kinematic profiles for pointing responses for highest and lowest loads showed greater motor adjustments during the point, demonstrating that, like external environmental task demands, the quality of internal representations affects motor kinematics. Specifically, these adjustments reflect the difficulty of both pointing to very precisely represented locations as well as keeping representations distinct from one another.
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Sokhadze EM, Lamina EV, Casanova EL, Kelly DP, Opris I, Khachidze I, Casanova MF. Atypical Processing of Novel Distracters in a Visual Oddball Task in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Behav Sci (Basel) 2017; 7:bs7040079. [PMID: 29144422 PMCID: PMC5746688 DOI: 10.3390/bs7040079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2017] [Revised: 11/10/2017] [Accepted: 11/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Several studies have shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show abnormalities in P3b to targets in standard oddball tasks. The present study employed a three-stimulus visual oddball task with novel distracters that analyzed event-related potentials (ERP) to both target and non-target items at frontal and parietal sites. The task tested the hypothesis that children with autism are abnormally orienting attention to distracters probably due to impaired habituation to novelty. We predicted a lower selectivity in early ERPs to target, frequent non-target, and rare distracters. We also expected delayed late ERPs in autism. The study enrolled 32 ASD and 24 typically developing (TD) children. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy were analyzed as behavioral measures, while ERPs were recorded with a dense-array EEG system. Children with ASD showed higher error rate without normative post-error RT slowing and had lower error-related negativity. Parietal P1, frontal N1, as well as P3a and P3b components were higher to novels in ASD. Augmented exogenous ERPs suggest low selectivity in pre-processing of stimuli resulting in their excessive processing at later stages. The results suggest an impaired habituation to unattended stimuli that incurs a high load at the later stages of perceptual and cognitive processing and response selection when novel distracter stimuli are differentiated from targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estate M Sokhadze
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, 200 Patewood Dr., Ste A200, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
- Developmental Behavioral Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Greenville Health System, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
| | - Eva V Lamina
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, 200 Patewood Dr., Ste A200, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
| | - Emily L Casanova
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, 200 Patewood Dr., Ste A200, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
- Developmental Behavioral Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Greenville Health System, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
| | - Desmond P Kelly
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, 200 Patewood Dr., Ste A200, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
- Developmental Behavioral Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Greenville Health System, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
| | - Ioan Opris
- School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
| | - Irma Khachidze
- Centre of Experimental Biomedicine, 14 Gotya str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia.
| | - Manuel F Casanova
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, 200 Patewood Dr., Ste A200, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
- Developmental Behavioral Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Greenville Health System, Greenville, SC 29615, USA.
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Spaniol MM, Shalev L, Kossyvaki L, Mevorach C. Attention Training in Autism as a Potential Approach to Improving Academic Performance: A School-Based Pilot Study. J Autism Dev Disord 2017; 48:592-610. [DOI: 10.1007/s10803-017-3371-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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8
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Beume LA, Kaller CP, Hoeren M, Klöppel S, Kuemmerer D, Glauche V, Köstering L, Mader I, Rijntjes M, Weiller C, Umarova R. Processing of bilateral versus unilateral conditions: Evidence for the functional contribution of the ventral attention network. Cortex 2015; 66:91-102. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.02.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2014] [Revised: 02/24/2015] [Accepted: 02/25/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Springer A, Beyer J, Derrfuss J, Volz KG, Hannover B. Seeing You or the Scene? Self-Construals Modulate Inhibitory Mechanisms of Attention. SOCIAL COGNITION 2012. [DOI: 10.1521/soco.2012.30.2.133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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10
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Sokhadze E, Baruth J, Tasman A, Mansoor M, Ramaswamy R, Sears L, Mathai G, El-Baz A, Casanova MF. Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) affects event-related potential measures of novelty processing in autism. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 2010; 35:147-61. [PMID: 19941058 DOI: 10.1007/s10484-009-9121-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In our previous study on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Sokhadze et al., Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 34:37-51, 2009a) we reported abnormalities in the attention-orienting frontal event-related potentials (ERP) and the sustained-attention centro-parietal ERPs in a visual oddball experiment. These results suggest that individuals with autism over-process information needed for the successful differentiation of target and novel stimuli. In the present study we examine the effects of low-frequency, repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) on novelty processing as well as behavior and social functioning in 13 individuals with ASD. Our hypothesis was that low-frequency rTMS application to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLFPC) would result in an alteration of the cortical excitatory/inhibitory balance through the activation of inhibitory GABAergic double bouquet interneurons. We expected to find post-TMS differences in amplitude and latency of early and late ERP components. The results of our current study validate the use of low-frequency rTMS as a modulatory tool that altered the disrupted ratio of cortical excitation to inhibition in autism. After rTMS the parieto-occipital P50 amplitude decreased to novel distracters but not to targets; also the amplitude and latency to targets increased for the frontal P50 while decreasing to non-target stimuli. Low-frequency rTMS minimized early cortical responses to irrelevant stimuli and increased responses to relevant stimuli. Improved selectivity in early cortical responses lead to better stimulus differentiation at later-stage responses as was made evident by our P3b and P3a component findings. These results indicate a significant change in early, middle-latency and late ERP components at the frontal, centro-parietal, and parieto-occipital regions of interest in response to target and distracter stimuli as a result of rTMS treatment. Overall, our preliminary results show that rTMS may prove to be an important research tool or treatment modality in addressing the stimulus hypersensitivity characteristic of autism spectrum disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estate Sokhadze
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA.
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Belmonte MK, Gomot M, Baron-Cohen S. Visual attention in autism families: 'unaffected' sibs share atypical frontal activation. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2010; 51:259-76. [PMID: 19912448 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02153.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In addition to their more clinically evident abnormalities of social cognition, people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) manifest perturbations of attention and sensory perception which may offer insights into the underlying neural abnormalities. Similar autistic traits in ASC relatives without a diagnosis suggest a continuity between clinically affected and unaffected family members. METHODS We applied fMRI in the context of a non-social task of visual attention in order to determine whether this continuity persists at the level of brain physiology. RESULTS Both boys with ASC and clinically unaffected brothers of people with ASC were impaired at a visual divided-attention task demanding conjunction of attributes from rapidly and simultaneously presented, spatially disjoint stimuli and suppression of spatially intervening distractors. In addition, both groups in comparison to controls manifested atypical fronto-cerebellar activation as a function of distractor congruence, and the degree of this frontal atypicality correlated with psychometric measures of autistic traits in ASC and sibs. Despite these resemblances between the ASC and sib groups, an exploratory, hypothesis-generating analysis of correlations across brain regions revealed a decrease in overall functional correlation only in the ASC group and not in the sibs. CONCLUSIONS These results establish a neurophysiological correlate of familial susceptibility to ASC, and suggest that whilst abnormal time courses of frontal activation may reflect processes permissive of autistic brain development, abnormal patterns of functional correlation across a wider array of brain regions may relate more closely to autism's determinants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew K Belmonte
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, USA.
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Toepper M, Gebhardt H, Beblo T, Thomas C, Driessen M, Bischoff M, Blecker C, Vaitl D, Sammer G. Functional correlates of distractor suppression during spatial working memory encoding. Neuroscience 2010; 165:1244-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2009] [Revised: 10/05/2009] [Accepted: 11/09/2009] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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13
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Event-related potential study of novelty processing abnormalities in autism. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 2009; 34:37-51. [PMID: 19199028 DOI: 10.1007/s10484-009-9074-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2008] [Accepted: 01/21/2009] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
To better understand visual processing abnormalities in autism we studied the attention orienting related frontal event potentials (ERP) and the sustained attention related centro-parietal ERPs in a three stimulus oddball experiment. The three stimulus oddball paradigm was aimed to test the hypothesis that individuals with autism abnormally orient their attention to novel distracters as compared to controls. A dense-array 128 channel EGI electroencephalographic (EEG) system was used on 11 high-functioning children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 11 age-matched, typically developing control subjects. Patients with ASD showed slower reaction times but did not differ in response accuracy. At the anterior (frontal) topography the ASD group showed significantly higher amplitudes and longer latencies of early ERP components (e.g., P100, N100) to novel distracter stimuli in both hemispheres. The ASD group also showed prolonged latencies of late ERP components (e.g., P2a, N200, P3a) to novel distracter stimuli in both hemispheres. However, differences were more profound in the right hemisphere for both early and late ERP components. Our results indicate augmented and prolonged early frontal potentials and a delayed P3a component to novel stimuli, which suggest low selectivity in pre-processing and later-stage under-activation of integrative regions in the prefrontal cortices. Also, at the posterior (centro-parietal) topography the ASD group showed significantly prolonged N100 latencies and reduced amplitudes of the N2b component to target stimuli. In addition, the latency of the P3b component was prolonged to novel distracters in the ASD group. In general, the autistic group showed prolonged latencies to novel stimuli especially in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that individuals with autism over-process information needed for the successful differentiation of target and novel stimuli. We propose the potential application of ERP evaluations in a novelty task as outcome measurements in the biobehavioral treatment (e.g., EEG biofeedback, TMS) of autism.
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Effects of low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on gamma frequency oscillations and event-related potentials during processing of illusory figures in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2008; 39:619-34. [PMID: 19030976 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-008-0662-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2008] [Accepted: 10/24/2008] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies by our group suggest that the neuropathology of autism is characterized by a disturbance of cortical modularity. In this model a decrease in the peripheral neuropil space of affected minicolumns provides for an inhibitory deficit and a readjustment in their signal to noise bias during information processing. In this study we proposed using low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a way increasing the surround inhibition of minicolumns in autism. Thirteen patients (ADOS and ADI-R diagnosed) and equal number of controls participated in the study. Repetitive TMS was delivered at 0.5 Hz, 2 times per week for 3 weeks. Outcome measures based on event-related potentials (ERP), induced gamma activity, and behavioral measures showed significant post-TMS improvement. The results suggest that rTMS offers a potential therapeutic intervention for autism.
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Landau B, Hoffman JE, Kurz N. Object recognition with severe spatial deficits in Williams syndrome: sparing and breakdown. Cognition 2006; 100:483-510. [PMID: 16185678 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2005.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2002] [Revised: 09/02/2004] [Accepted: 06/23/2005] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder that results in severe visual-spatial cognitive deficits coupled with relative sparing in language, face recognition, and certain aspects of motion processing. Here, we look for evidence for sparing or impairment in another cognitive system-object recognition. Children with WS, normal mental-age (MA) and chronological age-matched (CA) children, and normal adults viewed pictures of a large range of objects briefly presented under various conditions of degradation, including canonical and unusual orientations, and clear or blurred contours. Objects were shown as either full-color views (Experiment 1) or line drawings (Experiment 2). Across both experiments, WS and MA children performed similarly in all conditions while CA children performed better than both WS group and MA groups with unusual views. This advantage, however, was eliminated when images were also blurred. The error types and relative difficulty of different objects were similar across all participant groups. The results indicate selective sparing of basic mechanisms of object recognition in WS, together with developmental delay or arrest in recognition of objects from unusual viewpoints. These findings are consistent with the growing literature on brain abnormalities in WS which points to selective impairment in the parietal areas of the brain. As a whole, the results lend further support to the growing literature on the functional separability of object recognition mechanisms from other spatial functions, and raise intriguing questions about the link between genetic deficits and cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Landau
- Department of Cognitive Science, Krieger Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
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Li G, Cheung RTF, Gao JH, Lee TMC, Tan LH, Fox PT, Jack CR, Yang ES. Cognitive processing in Chinese literate and illiterate subjects: an fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 2006; 27:144-52. [PMID: 16080160 PMCID: PMC6871360 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2004] [Accepted: 05/02/2005] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) were used to map brain activation during language tasks. While previous studies have compared performance between alphabetic literate and illiterate subjects, there have been no such data in Chinese-speaking individuals. In this study, we used fMRI to examine the effects of education on neural activation associated with silent word recognition and silent picture-naming tasks in 24 healthy right-handed Chinese subjects (12 illiterates and 12 literates). There were 30 single Chinese characters in the silent word recognition task and 30 meaningful road-signs in the silent picture-naming task. When we compared literate and illiterate subjects, we observed education-related differences in activation patterns in the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus and both sides of the superior temporal gyrus for the silent word recognition task and in the bilateral inferior/middle frontal gyrus and left limbic cingulated gyrus for the silent picture-naming task. These results indicate that the patterns of neural activation associated with language tasks are strongly influenced by education. Education appears to have enhanced cognitive processing efficiency in language tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geng Li
- The Jockey Club MRI Center, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
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Schmitz N, Rubia K, Daly E, Smith A, Williams S, Murphy DGM. Neural correlates of executive function in autistic spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry 2006; 59:7-16. [PMID: 16140278 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.06.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 271] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2004] [Revised: 05/24/2005] [Accepted: 06/03/2005] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Some clinical characteristics of high-functioning individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) such as repetitive stereotyped behaviors, perseveration, and obsessionality have been related to executive function (EF) deficits, more specifically to deficits in inhibitory control and set shifting and mediating frontostriatal neural pathways. However, to date, no functional imaging study on ASD has investigated inhibition and cognitive flexibility and no one has related EF brain activation to brain structure. METHODS We compared brain activation (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) in 10 normal intelligence adults with ASD and 12 healthy control subjects during three different EF tasks: 1) motor-inhibition (GO/NO-GO); 2) cognitive interference-inhibition (spatial STROOP); and 3) set shifting (SWITCH). Using voxel-based morphometry, we investigated if cortical areas which were functionally different in people with ASD were also anatomically abnormal. RESULTS Compared with control subjects, ASD individuals showed significantly increased brain activation in 1) left inferior and orbital frontal gyrus (motor-inhibition); 2) left insula (interference-inhibition); and 3) parietal lobes (set shifting). Moreover, in individuals with ASD, increased frontal gray matter density and increased functional activation shared the same anatomical location. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest an association between successful completion of EF tasks and increased brain activation in people with ASD, which partially may be explained by differences in brain anatomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Schmitz
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Section of Brain Maturation, Institute of Psychiatry, King' College London, UK.
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Smith AT, Cotillon-Williams NM, Williams AL. Attentional modulation in the human visual cortex: the time-course of the BOLD response and its implications. Neuroimage 2005; 29:328-34. [PMID: 16054845 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2005] [Revised: 04/28/2005] [Accepted: 07/05/2005] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Throughout the visual areas of the brain, the sensory response to a stimulus is enhanced by attending to the stimulus. Neurophysiological studies in primates show that such enhancement is marked in posterior parietal cortex and some anterior occipital areas, but much more modest in the earliest processing stages, such as the primary visual cortex (V1). In contrast, human fMRI studies show large and robust attentional modulation in all visual areas, including V1. We investigate the possibility that, in the case of fMRI, the BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) response may be increased not only by local attention-related increases in neural activity, but also by local blood-flow increases caused by remote control systems that anticipate an impending need for oxygen at the attended location. Such changes could be much more rapid than the rather slow response to oxygenation change that typifies the BOLD response. We have employed a paradigm that isolates the component of the BOLD response due to attentional modulation and the component due to the mere presence of a visual stimulus. The results show that the temporal profiles of the BOLD responses in human V1 to the onset of a stimulus and to the onset of attention are extremely similar. The time-course of the attention-related BOLD response is not consistent with the action of remote, anticipatory control mechanisms and suggests that the modulatory effect of attention seen in human V1 with fMRI probably reflects genuine changes in local neural activity that are considerably larger than in non-human primates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew T Smith
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
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Haist F, Adamo M, Westerfield M, Courchesne E, Townsend J. The functional neuroanatomy of spatial attention in autism spectrum disorder. Dev Neuropsychol 2005; 27:425-58. [PMID: 15843105 DOI: 10.1207/s15326942dn2703_7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated the functional neuroanatomical correlates of spatial attention impairments in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) design. Eight ASD participants and 8 normal comparison (NC) participants were tested with a task that required stimulus discrimination following a spatial cue that preceded target presentation by 100 msec (short interstimulus interval [ISI]) or 800 msec (long ISI). The ASD group showed significant behavioral spatial attention impairment in the short ISI condition. The FMRI results showed a reduction in activity within frontal, parietal, and occipital regions in ASD relative to the NC group, most notably within the inferior parietal lobule. ASD behavioral performance improved in the long ISI condition but was still impaired relative to the NC group. ASD FMRI activity in the long ISI condition suggested that the rudimentary framework of normal attention networks were engaged in ASD including bilateral activation within the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Notable activation increases were observed in the superior parietal lobule and extrastriate cortex. No reliable activation was observed in the posterior cerebellar vermis in ASD participants during either long or short ISI conditions. In addition, no frontal activation during short ISI and severely reduced frontal activation during long ISI was observed in the ASD group. Taken together, these findings suggest a dysfunctional cerebello-frontal spatial attention system in ASD. The pattern of findings suggests that ASD is associated with a profound deficit in automatic spatial attention abilities and abnormal voluntary spatial attention abilities. This article also describes a method for reducing the contribution of physical eye movements to the blood-oxygenation level dependent activity in studies of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Haist
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0959, USA.
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Belmonte MK, Yurgelun-Todd DA. Functional anatomy of impaired selective attention and compensatory processing in autism. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2004; 17:651-64. [PMID: 14561452 DOI: 10.1016/s0926-6410(03)00189-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 158] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
In autism, physiological indices of selective attention have been shown to be abnormal even in situations where behaviour is intact. This divergence between behaviour and physiology suggests the action of some compensatory process of attention, one which may hold clues to the aetiology of autism's characteristic cognitive phenotype. Six subjects with autism spectrum disorders and six normal control subjects were studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a bilateral visual spatial attention task. In normal subjects, the task evoked activation in a network of cortical regions including the superior parietal lobe (P<0.001), left middle temporal gyrus (P=0.002), left inferior (P<0.001) and middle (P<0.02) frontal gyri, and medial frontal gyrus (P<0.02). Autistic subjects, in contrast, showed activation in the bilateral ventral occipital cortex (P<0.03) and striate cortex (P<0.05). Within the task condition, a region-of-interest comparison of attend-left versus attend-right conditions indicated that modulation of activation in the autistic brain as a function of the lateral focus of spatial attention was abnormally decreased in the left ventral occipital cortex (P<0.03), abnormally increased in the left intraparietal sulcus (P<0.01), and abnormally variable in the superior parietal lobe (P<0.03). These results are discussed in terms of a model of autism in which a pervasive defect of neural and synaptic development produces over-connected neural systems prone to noise and crosstalk, resulting in hyper-arousal and reduced selectivity. These low-level attentional traits may be the developmental basis for higher-order cognitive styles such as weak central coherence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew K Belmonte
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478-1048, USA.
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Kirkham NZ, Diamond A. Sorting between theories of perseveration: performance in conflict tasks requires memory, attention and inhibition. Dev Sci 2003. [DOI: 10.1111/1467-7687.00303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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