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Bress KS, Cascio CJ. Sensorimotor regulation of facial expression - An untouched frontier. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 162:105684. [PMID: 38710425 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
Facial expression is a critical form of nonverbal social communication which promotes emotional exchange and affiliation among humans. Facial expressions are generated via precise contraction of the facial muscles, guided by sensory feedback. While the neural pathways underlying facial motor control are well characterized in humans and primates, it remains unknown how tactile and proprioceptive information reaches these pathways to guide facial muscle contraction. Thus, despite the importance of facial expressions for social functioning, little is known about how they are generated as a unique sensorimotor behavior. In this review, we highlight current knowledge about sensory feedback from the face and how it is distinct from other body regions. We describe connectivity between the facial sensory and motor brain systems, and call attention to the other brain systems which influence facial expression behavior, including vision, gustation, emotion, and interoception. Finally, we petition for more research on the sensory basis of facial expressions, asserting that incomplete understanding of sensorimotor mechanisms is a barrier to addressing atypical facial expressivity in clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly S Bress
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Carissa J Cascio
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
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Ruble S, Kramer C, West L, Payne K, Ness H, Erickson G, Scott A, Diehl MM. Active avoidance recruits the anterior cingulate cortex regardless of social context in male and female rats. RESEARCH SQUARE 2024:rs.3.rs-3750422. [PMID: 38260416 PMCID: PMC10802695 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3750422/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Actively avoiding danger is necessary for survival. Most research has focused on the behavioral and neurobiological processes when individuals avoid danger alone, under solitary conditions. Therefore, little is known about how social context affects active avoidance. Using a modified version of the platform-mediated avoidance task in rats, we investigated whether the presence of a social partner attenuates conditioned freezing and enhances avoidance learning compared to avoidance learned under solitary conditions. Rats spent a similar percentage of time avoiding during the tone under both conditions; however, rats trained under social conditions exhibited greater freezing during the tone as well as lower rates of darting and food seeking compared to solitary rats. Under solitary conditions, we observed higher levels of avoidance in females compared to males, which was not present in rats trained under social conditions. To gain greater mechanistic insight, we optogenetically inactivated glutamatergic projection neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) following avoidance training. Photoinactivation of ACC neurons reduced expression of avoidance under social conditions both in the presence and absence of the partner. Under solitary conditions, photoinactivation of ACC delayed avoidance in males but blocked avoidance in females. Our findings suggest that avoidance is mediated by the ACC, regardless of social context, and may be dysfunctional in those suffering from trauma-related disorders. Furthermore, sex differences in prefrontal circuits mediating active avoidance warrant further investigation, given that females experience a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon Ruble
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Cassandra Kramer
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Lexe West
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Karissa Payne
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Halle Ness
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Greg Erickson
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Alyssa Scott
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
| | - Maria M. Diehl
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
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3
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Burnett LE, Koppensteiner P, Symonova O, Masson T, Vega-Zuniga T, Contreras X, Rülicke T, Shigemoto R, Novarino G, Joesch M. Shared behavioural impairments in visual perception and place avoidance across different autism models are driven by periaqueductal grey hypoexcitability in Setd5 haploinsufficient mice. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002668. [PMID: 38857283 PMCID: PMC11216578 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Revised: 07/01/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite the diverse genetic origins of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), affected individuals share strikingly similar and correlated behavioural traits that include perceptual and sensory processing challenges. Notably, the severity of these sensory symptoms is often predictive of the expression of other autistic traits. However, the origin of these perceptual deficits remains largely elusive. Here, we show a recurrent impairment in visual threat perception that is similarly impaired in 3 independent mouse models of ASD with different molecular aetiologies. Interestingly, this deficit is associated with reduced avoidance of threatening environments-a nonperceptual trait. Focusing on a common cause of ASDs, the Setd5 gene mutation, we define the molecular mechanism. We show that the perceptual impairment is caused by a potassium channel (Kv1)-mediated hypoexcitability in a subcortical node essential for the initiation of escape responses, the dorsal periaqueductal grey (dPAG). Targeted pharmacological Kv1 blockade rescued both perceptual and place avoidance deficits, causally linking seemingly unrelated trait deficits to the dPAG. Furthermore, we show that different molecular mechanisms converge on similar behavioural phenotypes by demonstrating that the autism models Cul3 and Ptchd1, despite having similar behavioural phenotypes, differ in their functional and molecular alteration. Our findings reveal a link between rapid perception controlled by subcortical pathways and appropriate learned interactions with the environment and define a nondevelopmental source of such deficits in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura E. Burnett
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | | | - Olga Symonova
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Tomás Masson
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Tomas Vega-Zuniga
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Ximena Contreras
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Thomas Rülicke
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Hematology and Oncology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ryuichi Shigemoto
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Gaia Novarino
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Maximilian Joesch
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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McLean KJ, Haas M, Koenig J, Horvath M, Vigil M, Werner NE, Bishop L. "I'm dealing with a health care system that doesn't get it": Barriers and facilitators to inclusive healthcare for autistic adults. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2024; 28:1382-1393. [PMID: 38469707 PMCID: PMC11132937 DOI: 10.1177/13623613241236380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
LAY ABSTRACT Research has suggested that autistic adults may have a bigger chance of having mental health and physical health conditions such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, diabetes, obesity, and heart problems than adults without autism. Unfortunately, the unique healthcare needs of autistic adults are often overlooked, so it is not clear why autistic adults have worse health or what can be done to improve it. This study wants to find out the challenges autistic adults experience in taking care of their health and in going to different doctors. Researchers interviewed autistic adults across the country about their healthcare experiences. The interviewed autistic adults told the researchers about the barriers (things that did not help) and facilitators (things that did help) that impacted whether they received the care they needed. The researchers then organized what they learned from the autistic adults into a model called the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model of work system and patient safety. This model explains how different parts of a healthcare system (person, tasks, technology and tools, environment, and organization) interact with one another and impact the healthcare experiences and outcomes of the patients in their care, like autistic adults. Overall, this study advocates for a systems-level approach to improving the healthcare experiences of autistic adults and their health outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meghan Haas
- Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
| | - Jamie Koenig
- Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
- Waisman Center, USA
| | - Megan Horvath
- Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
| | - Mariah Vigil
- Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
| | - Nicole E Werner
- Department of Health and Wellness Design, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
| | - Lauren Bishop
- Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
- Waisman Center, USA
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Kausel L, Michon M, Soto-Icaza P, Aboitiz F. A multimodal interface for speech perception: the role of the left superior temporal sulcus in social cognition and autism. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:84-93. [PMID: 38696598 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 02/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Multimodal integration is crucial for human interaction, in particular for social communication, which relies on integrating information from various sensory modalities. Recently a third visual pathway specialized in social perception was proposed, which includes the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) playing a key role in processing socially relevant cues and high-level social perception. Importantly, it has also recently been proposed that the left STS contributes to audiovisual integration of speech processing. In this article, we propose that brain areas along the right STS that support multimodal integration for social perception and cognition can be considered homologs to those in the left, language-dominant hemisphere, sustaining multimodal integration of speech and semantic concepts fundamental for social communication. Emphasizing the significance of the left STS in multimodal integration and associated processes such as multimodal attention to socially relevant stimuli, we underscore its potential relevance in comprehending neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by challenges in social communication such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Further research into this left lateral processing stream holds the promise of enhancing our understanding of social communication in both typical development and ASD, which may lead to more effective interventions that could improve the quality of life for individuals with atypical neurodevelopment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonie Kausel
- Centro de Estudios en Neurociencia Humana y Neuropsicología (CENHN), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, Vergara 275, 8370076 Santiago, Chile
| | - Maëva Michon
- Praxiling Laboratory, Joint Research Unit (UMR 5267), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier, France, Route de Mende, 34199 Montpellier cedex 5, France
- Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Marcoleta 391, 2do piso, 8330024 Santiago, Chile
- Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Evolutiva, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Marcoleta 391, 2do piso, 8330024 Santiago, Chile
| | - Patricia Soto-Icaza
- Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (CICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile, Av. Las Condes 12461, edificio 3, piso 3, 7590943, Las Condes Santiago, Chile
| | - Francisco Aboitiz
- Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Marcoleta 391, 2do piso, 8330024 Santiago, Chile
- Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Evolutiva, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Marcoleta 391, 2do piso, 8330024 Santiago, Chile
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Yoon CD, Xia Y, Terol AK, Meadan H, Lee JD. Correlation Between Gaze Behaviors and Social Communication Skills of Young Autistic Children: A Meta-Analysis of Eye-Tracking Studies. J Autism Dev Disord 2024:10.1007/s10803-024-06257-x. [PMID: 38400896 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06257-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/26/2024]
Abstract
This meta-analysis examined correlations between eye-tracking measures of gaze behaviors manifested during dynamic salient social stimuli and behavioral assessment measures of social communication skills of young autistic children. We employed a multilevel model with random effects to perform three separate meta-analyses for correlation between social communication skills and (a) all gaze behaviors, (b) gaze duration, and (c) gaze transition. Subsequently, we performed meta-regression to assess the role of four moderators, including age, continuum of naturalness of stimuli, gaze metric, and area of interest, on correlation effect sizes that were heterogeneous at the population level. A total of 111 correlation coefficients from 17 studies for 1132 young autistic children or children with high-likelihood for autism (Mage range = 6-95 months) were included in this meta-analysis. The correlation effect sizes for all three meta-analyses were significant, supporting the relation between improved gaze behaviors and better social communication skills. In addition, age, gaze metric, and area of interest were significant moderators. This suggests the importance of identifying meaningful gaze behaviors related to social communication skills and the increasingly influential role of gaze behaviors in shaping social communication skills as young autistic children progress through the early childhood stage. The continuum of naturalness of stimuli, however, was revealed to trend towards having a significant moderating effect. Lastly, it is important to note the evidence of potential publication bias. Our findings are discussed in the context of early identification and intervention and unraveling the complex nature of autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christy D Yoon
- Department of Special Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA.
| | - Yan Xia
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA
| | - Adriana Kaori Terol
- Department of Special Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA
| | - Hedda Meadan
- Department of Special Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA
| | - James D Lee
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, 6901 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA
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Bloch C, Tepest R, Koeroglu S, Feikes K, Jording M, Vogeley K, Falter-Wagner CM. Interacting with autistic virtual characters: intrapersonal synchrony of nonverbal behavior affects participants' perception. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2024:10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3. [PMID: 38270620 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Temporal coordination of communicative behavior is not only located between but also within interaction partners (e.g., gaze and gestures). This intrapersonal synchrony (IaPS) is assumed to constitute interpersonal alignment. Studies show systematic variations in IaPS in individuals with autism, which may affect the degree of interpersonal temporal coordination. In the current study, we reversed the approach and mapped the measured nonverbal behavior of interactants with and without ASD from a previous study onto virtual characters to study the effects of the differential IaPS on observers (N = 68), both with and without ASD (crossed design). During a communication task with both characters, who indicated targets with gaze and delayed pointing gestures, we measured response times, gaze behavior, and post hoc impression formation. Results show that character behavior indicative of ASD resulted in overall enlarged decoding times in observers and this effect was even pronounced in observers with ASD. A classification of observer's gaze types indicated differentiated decoding strategies. Whereas non-autistic observers presented with a rather consistent eyes-focused strategy associated with efficient and fast responses, observers with ASD presented with highly variable decoding strategies. In contrast to communication efficiency, impression formation was not influenced by IaPS. The results underline the importance of timing differences in both production and perception processes during multimodal nonverbal communication in interactants with and without ASD. In essence, the current findings locate the manifestation of reduced reciprocity in autism not merely in the person, but in the interactional dynamics of dyads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carola Bloch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, LMU Clinic, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 80336, Munich, Germany.
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Ralf Tepest
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany
| | - Sevim Koeroglu
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany
| | - Kyra Feikes
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany
| | - Mathis Jording
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Forschungszentrum Juelich, 52425, Juelich, Germany
| | - Kai Vogeley
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Forschungszentrum Juelich, 52425, Juelich, Germany
| | - Christine M Falter-Wagner
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, LMU Clinic, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 80336, Munich, Germany
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Fry R, Li X, Evans TC, Esterman M, Tanaka J, DeGutis J. Investigating the Influence of Autism Spectrum Traits on Face Processing Mechanisms in Developmental Prosopagnosia. J Autism Dev Disord 2023; 53:4787-4808. [PMID: 36173532 PMCID: PMC10812037 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05705-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/24/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Autism traits are common exclusionary criteria in developmental prosopagnosia (DP) studies. We investigated whether autism traits produce qualitatively different face processing in 43 DPs with high vs. low autism quotient (AQ) scores. Compared to controls (n = 27), face memory and perception were similarly deficient in the high- and low-AQ DPs, with the high-AQ DP group additionally showing deficient face emotion recognition. Task-based fMRI revealed reduced occipito-temporal face selectivity in both groups, with high-AQ DPs additionally demonstrating decreased posterior superior temporal sulcus selectivity. Resting-state fMRI showed similar reduced face-selective network connectivity in both DP groups compared with controls. Together, this demonstrates that high- and low-AQ DP groups have very similar face processing deficits, with additional facial emotion deficits in high-AQ DPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regan Fry
- Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., 182JP, Boston, MA, 02130, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Xian Li
- Psychological and Brain Science Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Travis C Evans
- Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., 182JP, Boston, MA, 02130, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Michael Esterman
- Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., 182JP, Boston, MA, 02130, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
- National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA
| | - James Tanaka
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
| | - Joseph DeGutis
- Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., 182JP, Boston, MA, 02130, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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9
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Tian L, Ma S, Li Y, Zhao MF, Xu C, Wang C, Zhang X, Gao L. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can improve the fixation of eyes rather than the fixation preference in children with autism spectrum disorder. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1188648. [PMID: 37547145 PMCID: PMC10400712 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1188648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been introduced into the intervention of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as a possible new therapeutic option for modifying pathological neuroplasticity. However, the stimulating protocols of rTMS for ASD have not been approved unanimously, which affects the clinical popularization and application of rTMS. In addition, there is little research on the improvement of social processing of autistic children by rTMS. Methods We explored the clinical efficacy of rTMS and improvement of face processing with the protocol of left high-frequency and right low-frequency on bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), with a sample of 45 ASD participants aged 2-18. Results Our results showed that both the score on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the fixations on the eyes of the human faces improved by two-session rTMS intervention, except for the percentage of eyes fixation. The mediation analysis indicated the item of "Adaptation to Change" of CARS mediated dominantly the improvement of eye-gaze behavior of ASD participants by rTMS. Conclusion Our study revealed the mechanism of rTMS in improving the eye-gaze behavior of the autism population, deepened the understanding of the function of rTMS in treating autistic social disorders, and provided a reference for combined treatment for ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Tian
- Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Shuai Ma
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yin Li
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Meng-fei Zhao
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Chang Xu
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Chen Wang
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xin Zhang
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Lei Gao
- Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
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10
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Lott-Sandkamp LL, Spengler FB, Heinrichs M. Impairment in reading negative social cues extends beyond the face in autism. J Psychiatr Res 2023; 164:350-356. [PMID: 37399756 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.06.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023]
Abstract
Nonverbal expressions are essential to regulating social communication and interaction. Impaired emotion recognition from facial expressions has been linked to various psychiatric conditions characterized by severe social deficits such as autism. As body expressions as an additional source of social-emotional information have attracted little research attention, little is known about whether emotion recognition impairments are specific to faces, or extend to body expressions. This study explored and compared emotion recognition from face versus body expressions in autism spectrum disorder. We compared 30 men with autism spectrum disorder to 30 male age- and IQ-matched control participants in their ability to recognize angry, happy, and neutral expressions from dynamic face and body expressions. Participants with autism spectrum disorder showed impaired recognition of angry expressions from both faces and bodies, while there were no group differences in recognizing happy and neutral expressions. In autism spectrum disorder, recognizing angry face expressions was inversely predicted by gaze avoidance, while recognizing angry body expressions was inversely predicted by impairments in social interaction and autistic traits. These findings suggest that distinct mechanisms may underlie the impaired emotion recognition from face and body expressions in autism spectrum disorder, respectively. Overall, our study demonstrates that emotion-specific recognition difficulties in autism spectrum disorder are not limited to face expressions but extend to emotional body expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea L Lott-Sandkamp
- Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Strasse 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany; Laboratory for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Engelbergerstr. 41, 79106, Freiburg, Germany; Laboratory for Social Neuroscience, Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Franny B Spengler
- Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Strasse 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany; Laboratory for Social Neuroscience, Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Markus Heinrichs
- Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Strasse 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany; Laboratory for Social Neuroscience, Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany.
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11
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Zhou R, Xie X, Wang J, Ma B, Hao X. Why do children with autism spectrum disorder have abnormal visual perception? Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1087122. [PMID: 37255685 PMCID: PMC10225551 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1087122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with severe impairment in social functioning. Visual information processing provides nonverbal cues that support social interactions. ASD children exhibit abnormalities in visual orientation, continuous visual exploration, and visual-spatial perception, causing social dysfunction, and mechanisms underlying these abnormalities remain unclear. Transmission of visual information depends on the retina-lateral geniculate nucleus-visual cortex pathway. In ASD, developmental abnormalities occur in rapid expansion of the visual cortex surface area with constant thickness during early life, causing abnormal transmission of the peak of the visual evoked potential (P100). We hypothesized that abnormal visual perception in ASD are related to the abnormal visual information transmission and abnormal development of visual cortex in early life, what's more, explored the mechanisms of abnormal visual symptoms to provide suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rongyi Zhou
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xinyue Xie
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Jiaojiao Wang
- Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Henan Institute of Ophthalmology, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Bingxiang Ma
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xin Hao
- Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
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12
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Zayan U, Caccialupi Da Prato L, Muscatelli F, Matarazzo V. Modulation of the thermosensory system by oxytocin. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 15:1075305. [PMID: 36698777 PMCID: PMC9868264 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.1075305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) is a neurohormone involved early in neurodevelopment and is implicated in multiple functions, including sensory modulation. Evidence of such modulation has been observed for different sensory modalities in both healthy and pathological conditions. This review summarizes the pleiotropic modulation that OT can exercise on an often overlooked sensory system: thermosensation. This system allows us to sense temperature variations and compensate for the variation to maintain a stable core body temperature. Oxytocin modulates autonomic and behavioral mechanisms underlying thermoregulation at both central and peripheral levels. Hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity for different sensory modalities, including thermosensitivity, is a common feature in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), recapitulated in several ASD mouse models. These sensory dysregulations occur early in post-natal development and are correlated with dysregulation of the oxytocinergic system. In this study, we discussed the potential link between thermosensory atypia and the dysregulation of the oxytocinergic system in ASD.
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Naples AJ, Foss-Feig JH, Wolf JM, Srihari VH, McPartland JC. Predictability modulates neural response to eye contact in ASD. Mol Autism 2022; 13:42. [PMID: 36309762 PMCID: PMC9618208 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-022-00519-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Deficits in establishing and maintaining eye-contact are early and persistent vulnerabilities of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the neural bases of these deficits remain elusive. A promising hypothesis is that social features of autism may reflect difficulties in making predictions about the social world under conditions of uncertainty. However, no research in ASD has examined how predictability impacts the neural processing of eye-contact in naturalistic interpersonal interactions. METHOD We used eye tracking to facilitate an interactive social simulation wherein onscreen faces would establish eye-contact when the participant looked at them. In Experiment One, receipt of eye-contact was unpredictable; in Experiment Two, receipt of eye-contact was predictable. Neural response to eye-contact was measured via the N170 and P300 event-related potentials (ERPs). Experiment One included 23 ASD and 46 typically developing (TD) adult participants. Experiment Two included 25 ASD and 43 TD adult participants. RESULTS When receipt of eye-contact was unpredictable, individuals with ASD showed increased N170 and increased, but non-specific, P300 responses. The magnitude of the N170 responses correlated with measures of sensory and anxiety symptomology, such that increased response to eye-contact was associated with increased symptomology. However, when receipt of eye-contact was predictable, individuals with ASD, relative to controls, exhibited slower N170s and no differences in the amplitude of N170 or P300. LIMITATIONS Our ASD sample was composed of adults with IQ > 70 and included only four autistic women. Thus, further research is needed to evaluate how these results generalize across the spectrum of age, sex, and cognitive ability. Additionally, as analyses were exploratory, some findings failed to survive false-discovery rate adjustment. CONCLUSIONS Neural response to eye-contact in ASD ranged from attenuated to hypersensitive depending on the predictability of the social context. These findings suggest that the vulnerabilities in eye-contact during social interactions in ASD may arise from differences in anticipation and expectation of eye-contact in addition to the perception of gaze alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam J Naples
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Jennifer H Foss-Feig
- Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
- Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Julie M Wolf
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Vinod H Srihari
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - James C McPartland
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Center for Brain and Mind Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
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Heval Özgen M, van den Brink W. Ketamine Self-Medication in a Patient with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Comorbid Therapy-Resistant Depression. PSYCHIAT CLIN PSYCH 2022; 32:268-272. [PMID: 38766674 PMCID: PMC11099673 DOI: 10.5152/pcp.2022.22037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
In this case report, we present an adult male patient with autism spectrum disorder and a comorbid (treatment-resistant) mood disorder with suicidality. He has been treated with numerous psychopharmaceuticals, most recently risperidone and valproic acid. He has been hospitalized several times and has attempted suicide. He displayed limited social functioning, repetitive behaviors, sensory hypersensitivity, anxiety, depressed mood, anhedonia, low energy, and chronic suicidality. Despite intensive treatment, he remained highly symptomatic and unable to work. After repeatedly self-medicating with ketamine, the patient reported that his depression and suicidality disappeared and that his autism spectrum disorder symptoms were reduced. This case study - along with previous clinical studies - suggests that ketamine is likely to be effective against depression and suicidality and potentially effective against (certain) autism spectrum disorder symptoms. However, increasing public awareness of the beneficial effects of ketamine may lead to more unsupervised and thus risky use of ketamine for self-medication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihriban Heval Özgen
- Parnassia Addiction Research Centre (PARC), Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands
- Curium, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Wim van den Brink
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location Academic Medical Center, Bijlmer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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15
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Hadjikhani N, Galazka M, Kenet T, Joseph R, Åsberg Johnels J. Discrepancy between high non-verbal intelligence and low accuracy at reading emotional expressions in the eyes reflects the magnitude of social-emotional difficulties in autism. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2022; 273:755-759. [PMID: 35980452 PMCID: PMC10085919 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-022-01471-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Many so-called "high functioning" autistic individuals struggle with daily living skills, and have poorer than expected adult outcomes in employment, relationships, and quality of life. Significant discrepancies between non-verbal intelligence and emotional processing can be observed in autism, but the role of the magnitude of this gap in achieving potential psychosocial outcome is not known. Here, we show in a large group of participants (n = 107), that only among those with an autism diagnosis (n = 33), the gap between non-verbal intelligence (as measured by Raven's matrices) and the ability to perform the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test significantly predicts self-perceived emotional/social difficulties as assessed by the Empathy Quotient. Our results suggest that it is specifically the magnitude of the gap between (high) levels of abstract reasoning skills and poor proficiency in reading emotions expressed by the eyes that predicts self-perceived difficulties in emotional and social interactions among adults with autism. A better understanding of the underlying causes of the discrepancy between potential and actual psychosocial outcomes is the first step toward developing the most appropriate support for this vulnerable population, and our study offers some potentially important insights in this regard.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nouchine Hadjikhani
- Harvard/MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, USA. .,Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | - Martyna Galazka
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Tal Kenet
- Harvard/MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Robert Joseph
- Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
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16
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Huang Y, Vangel M, Chen H, Eshel M, Cheng M, Lu T, Kong J. The Impaired Subcortical Pathway From Superior Colliculus to the Amygdala in Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Front Integr Neurosci 2022; 16:666439. [PMID: 35784498 PMCID: PMC9247550 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2022.666439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
ObjectiveIncreasing evidence suggests that a subcortical pathway from the superior colliculus (SC) through the pulvinar to the amygdala plays a crucial role in mediating non-conscious processing in response to emotional visual stimuli. Given the atypical eye gaze and response patterns to visual affective stimuli in autism, we examined the functional and white matter structural difference of the pathway in boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) boys.MethodsA total of 38 boys with ASD and 38 TD boys were included. We reconstructed the SC-pulvinar-amygdala pathway in boys with ASD and TD using tractography and analyzed tract-specific measurements to compare the white matter difference between the two groups. A region of interest-based functional analysis was also applied among the key nodes of the pathway to explore the functional connectivity network.ResultsDiffusion tensor imaging analysis showed decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in pathways for boys with ASD compared to TD. The FA change was significantly associated with the atypical communication pattern in boys with ASD. In addition, compared to TD, we found that the ASD group was associated with increased functional connectivity between the right pulvinar and the left SC.ConclusionOur results indicated that the functional and white matter microstructure of the subcortical route to the amygdala might be altered in individuals with autism. This atypical structural change of the SC-pulvinar-amygdala pathway may be related to the abnormal communication patterns in boys with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiting Huang
- School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Mark Vangel
- Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Helen Chen
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Maya Eshel
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Ming Cheng
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Tao Lu
- School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- *Correspondence: Tao Lu,
| | - Jian Kong
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States
- Jian Kong,
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Abstract
Abstract. With the widespread adoption of masks, there is a need for understanding how facial obstruction affects emotion recognition. We asked 120 participants to identify emotions from faces with and without masks. We also examined if recognition performance was related to autistic traits and personality. Masks impacted recognition of expressions with diagnostic lower face features the most and those with diagnostic upper face features the least. Persons with higher autistic traits were worse at identifying unmasked expressions, while persons with lower extraversion and higher agreeableness were better at recognizing masked expressions. These results show that different features play different roles in emotion recognition and suggest that obscuring features affects social communication differently as a function of autistic traits and personality.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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18
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Alvari G, Coviello L, Furlanello C. EYE-C: Eye-Contact Robust Detection and Analysis during Unconstrained Child-Therapist Interactions in the Clinical Setting of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Brain Sci 2021; 11:1555. [PMID: 34942856 PMCID: PMC8699076 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11121555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2021] [Revised: 11/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The high level of heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the lack of systematic measurements complicate predicting outcomes of early intervention and the identification of better-tailored treatment programs. Computational phenotyping may assist therapists in monitoring child behavior through quantitative measures and personalizing the intervention based on individual characteristics; still, real-world behavioral analysis is an ongoing challenge. For this purpose, we designed EYE-C, a system based on OpenPose and Gaze360 for fine-grained analysis of eye-contact episodes in unconstrained therapist-child interactions via a single video camera. The model was validated on video data varying in resolution and setting, achieving promising performance. We further tested EYE-C on a clinical sample of 62 preschoolers with ASD for spectrum stratification based on eye-contact features and age. By unsupervised clustering, three distinct sub-groups were identified, differentiated by eye-contact dynamics and a specific clinical phenotype. Overall, this study highlights the potential of Artificial Intelligence in categorizing atypical behavior and providing translational solutions that might assist clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianpaolo Alvari
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 84, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
- DSH Research Unit, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Via Sommarive 8, 38123 Trento, Italy
| | - Luca Coviello
- University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy;
- Enogis, Via al Maso Visintainer 8, 38122 Trento, Italy
| | - Cesare Furlanello
- HK3 Lab, Piazza Manifatture 1, 38068 Rovereto, Italy;
- Orobix Life, Via Camozzi 145, 24121 Bergamo, Italy
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19
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The Comparison of Quantitative Electroencephalography of Neural Connections between Children aged 6 to 13 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.52547/jcp.9.3.27] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
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20
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McLaughlin CS, Grosman HE, Guillory SB, Isenstein EL, Wilkinson E, Trelles MDP, Halpern DB, Siper PM, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum JD, Wang AT, Foss-Feig JH. Reduced engagement of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorder. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2021; 25:2064-2073. [PMID: 33966481 DOI: 10.1177/13623613211010072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
LAY ABSTRACT Limited eye contact and difficulty tracking where others are looking are common in people with autism spectrum disorder. It is unclear, however, whether these are specifically social differences; it is possible that they are a result of broader alterations in engaging and disengaging visual attention. We used eye-tracking technology with children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 35) and typical development (n = 32), showing them both social and nonsocial imaging to test their visual attention. Children with autism spectrum disorder had a significant difference in how long it took them to look from an image in the middle to one on the side, depending on whether the middle image stayed on the screen or flashed off before the one on the side appeared. This difference was present for both social and nonsocial images, and was related to cognitive ability for only the children with autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder have differences in general processes of engaging visual attention that are not specifically social in nature, and that these processes may relate to cognitive ability in autism spectrum disorder. Affected processes of visual engagement in autism spectrum disorder may contribute to symptoms like reduced eye contact, but social-specific symptoms of autism spectrum disorder likely do not stem from reduced visual engagement alone.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - A Ting Wang
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA
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21
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Yao S, Zhou M, Zhang Y, Zhou F, Zhang Q, Zhao Z, Jiang X, Xu X, Becker B, Kendrick KM. Decreased homotopic interhemispheric functional connectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res 2021; 14:1609-1620. [PMID: 33908177 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Revised: 04/15/2021] [Accepted: 04/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
While several functional and structural changes occur in large-scale brain networks in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), reduced interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between homotopic regions may be of particular importance as a biomarker. ASD is an early-onset developmental disorder and neural alterations are often age-dependent. Although there is some evidence for homotopic interhemispheric rsFC alterations in language processing regions in ASD children, wider analyses using large data sets have not been performed. The present study, therefore, conducted a voxel-based homotopic interhemispheric rsFC analysis in 146 ASD and 175 typically developing children under-age 10 and examined associations with symptom severity in the autism brain imaging data exchange data sets. Given the role of corpus callosum (CC) in interhemispheric connectivity and reported CC volume changes in ASD we additionally examined whether there were parallel volumetric changes. Results demonstrated decreased homotopic rsFC in ASD children in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and precuneus of the default mode network, the precentral gyrus of the mirror neuron system, and the caudate of the reward system. Homotopic rsFC of the PCC was associated with symptom severity. Furthermore, although no significant CC volume changes were found in ASD children, there was a significant negative correlation between the anterior CC volumes and homotopic rsFC strengths in the caudate. The present study shows that a reduced pattern of homotopic interhemispheric rsFC in ASD adults/adolescents is already present in children of 5-10 years old and further supports their potential use as a general ASD biomarker. LAY SUMMARY: Homotopic interhemispheric functional connectivity plays an important role in synchronizing activity between the two hemispheres and is altered in adults and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the present study focused on children with ASD, we have observed a similar pattern of decreased homotopic connectivity, suggesting that alterations in homotopic interhemispheric connectivity may occur early in ASD and be a useful general biomarker across ages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuxia Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Menghan Zhou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Yuan Zhang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Feng Zhou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qianqian Zhang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Zhongbo Zhao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Xi Jiang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Xiaolei Xu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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22
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Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism. Cognition 2021; 212:104710. [PMID: 33862441 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Revised: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Recognition of emotional facial expressions is considered to be atypical in autism. This difficulty is thought to be due to the way that facial expressions are visually explored. Evidence for atypical visual exploration of emotional faces in autism is, however, equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical visual exploration of emotional facial expressions is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition. In this eye-tracking study we tested the alexithymia hypothesis using a number of recent methodological advances to study eye gaze during several emotion processing tasks (emotion recognition, intensity judgements, free gaze), in 25 adults with, and 45 without, autism. A multilevel polynomial modelling strategy was used to describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze to emotional facial expressions. Converging evidence from traditional and novel analysis methods revealed that atypical gaze to the eyes is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. Information theoretic analyses also revealed differential effects of task on gaze patterns as a function of alexithymia, but not autism. These findings highlight factors underlying atypical emotion processing in autistic individuals, with wide-ranging implications for emotion research.
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23
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Yao S, Becker B, Kendrick KM. Reduced Inter-hemispheric Resting State Functional Connectivity and Its Association With Social Deficits in Autism. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:629870. [PMID: 33746796 PMCID: PMC7969641 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.629870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an early onset developmental disorder which persists throughout life and is increasing in prevalence over the last few decades. Given its early onset and variable cognitive and emotional functional impairments, it is generally challenging to assess ASD individuals using task-based behavioral and functional MRI paradigms. Consequently, resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) has become a key approach for examining ASD-associated neural alterations and revealed functional alterations in large-scale brain networks relative to typically developing (TD) individuals, particularly those involved in social-cognitive and affective processes. Recent progress suggests that alterations in inter-hemispheric resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between regions in the 2 brain hemispheres, particularly homotopic ones, may be of great importance. Here we have reviewed neuroimaging studies examining inter-hemispheric rsFC abnormities in ASD and its associations with symptom severity. As an index of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity, we have additionally reviewed previous studies on corpus callosum (CC) volumetric and fiber changes in ASD. There are converging findings on reduced inter-hemispheric (including homotopic) rsFC in large-scale brain networks particularly in posterior hubs of the default mode network, reduced volumes in the anterior and posterior CC, and on decreased FA and increased MD or RD across CC subregions. Associations between the strength of inter-hemispheric rsFC and social impairments in ASD together with their classification performance in distinguishing ASD subjects from TD controls across ages suggest that the strength of inter-hemispheric rsFC may be a more promising biomarker for assisting in ASD diagnosis than abnormalities in either brain wide rsFC or brain structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuxia Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
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24
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Mahadas S, Semkewyc C, Suresh S, Hung GK. Scan path during change-detection visual search. Comput Biol Med 2021; 131:104233. [PMID: 33561672 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2020] [Revised: 01/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
When observing a particular image or object, one's perception depends upon prior expectations, memory, and cognitive abilities. It is hypothesized that cognitive processing in the form of top-down or bottom-up processing could be determined via analysis of the eye fixation scan path. To assess the variations in scan paths, 7 subjects underwent 5 change-detection trials. During each trial, they were presented with a specific set of images via a MATLAB program, in which the original image alternated with a modified image consisting of a single change. An open-source program called GazeRecorder was used to track the subject's eye movements and to record the eye fixations. The scan path was then analyzed through the use of a 4 by 4 grid pattern superimposed on the image to determine the subject's eye fixation distribution pattern in terms of Boxes Viewed and Concentration within a single area. It was determined that higher Concentration was positively correlated with faster Detection Speed (R = 0.84), while higher number of Boxes Viewed was negatively correlated with Detection Speed (R = -0.71). Among the subjects, the more optimal scan paths were found in those with a balance between Concentration and Boxes Viewed, as subjects with a more balanced approach had the greatest Accuracy (p = 0.02). This indicates an optimal scan path involves both top-down and bottom-up processing to more efficiently identify a change. Moreover, the methodology developed in this study could be used in the home or clinic for quantitative assessment of improvement following therapy in patients with neurological deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srikrishnaraja Mahadas
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Courtney Semkewyc
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Shradha Suresh
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - George K Hung
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
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25
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Scott AJW, Wang Y, Abdel-Jaber H, Thabtah F, Ray SK. Improving screening systems of autism using data sampling. Technol Health Care 2021; 29:897-909. [PMID: 33459672 DOI: 10.3233/thc-202538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex range of neurodegenerative conditions that impact individuals' social behaviour and communication skills. However, ASD data often contains far more controls than cases. This poses a serious challenge when creating classification models due to deriving models that favour controls during the classification of individuals. This problem is known as class imbalance, and it may reduce the performance in classification models derived by machine learning (ML) techniques due to individuals may remain undetected. METHODS ML appears to help in the distressing disorder by improving outcome quality besides speeding up the access to early diagnosis and consequential treatment. A screening dataset that consists of over 1100 instances was used to perform extensive quantitative analysis using different data resampling techniques and according to specific evaluation metrics. We measure the effect of class imbalance on autism screening performance using different data resampling techniques with a ML classifier and with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and F1-measure. We would like to know which resampling methods work well in balancing autism screening data. RESULTS The results reveal that data resampling, and especially oversampling, improve results derived by the considered ML classifier. More importantly, there was superiority in terms of sensitivity and specificity for models derived by Naive Bayes classifier when oversampling methods have been used for data pre-processing on the autism data considered. CONCLUSION The results reported encourages further improvement of the design and implementation of ASD screening systems using intelligent technology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yun Wang
- Digital Technologies, Manukau Institute of Technolog, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Hussein Abdel-Jaber
- Department of Information Technology and Computing, Faculty of Computer Studies, Arab Open University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Sayan Kumar Ray
- Digital Technologies, Manukau Institute of Technolog, Auckland, New Zealand
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Yang T, Li D, Zhang Y, Zhang L, Li H, Ji GJ, Yang Z, Zhang L, Zhu C, Wang K. Eye Avoidance of Threatening Facial Expressions in Parents of Children with ASD. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2021; 17:1869-1879. [PMID: 34140771 PMCID: PMC8203098 DOI: 10.2147/ndt.s300491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Previous research found that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was characterized by eye avoidance of threatening facial expressions. However, it still remains unclear as to whether these abnormalities are present in parents of children with ASD. Our study aimed to investigate the gaze patterns of parents of children with ASD in the threatening facial expressions. METHODS Thirty-four parents of children with ASD and 35 parents of typically developing (TD) children participated in our study. We investigated the total fixation time of participants when they viewed different facial expression (eg, happy, fearful, angry, sad) videos and examined changes in the fixation duration over time. RESULTS We observed the following: a) the total fixation time of the parents of children with ASD on the eyes of fearful faces was significantly shorter than that of the normal group, and the difference lasted for five seconds (four to six seconds, eight to nine seconds) throughout the process; and b) The parents of children with ASD avoided the eyes of angry expression faces at around five seconds after the stimulus onset. CONCLUSION We concluded that parents of children with ASD tended to avoid the eyes of threatening expression faces while viewing the dynamic emotions video.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingting Yang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Dandan Li
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Yifan Zhang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Long Zhang
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Hong Li
- Department of Neurological Rehabilitation of Children, Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Gong-Jun Ji
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhenhai Yang
- Department of Rehabilitation therapy, The First Clinical Medical College of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Lei Zhang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Chunyan Zhu
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Kai Wang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.,Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
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Clin E, Maes P, Stercq F, Kissine M. No preference for direct versus averted gaze in autistic adults: a reinforced preferential looking paradigm. Mol Autism 2020; 11:91. [PMID: 33208193 PMCID: PMC7672906 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-020-00398-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Background With the overarching objective to gain better insights into social attention in autistic adults, the present study addresses three outstanding issues about face processing in autism. First, do autistic adults display a preference for mouths over eyes; second, do they avoid direct gaze; third, is atypical visual exploration of faces in autism mediated by gender, social anxiety or alexithymia? Methods We used a novel reinforced preferential looking paradigm with a group of autistic adults (n = 43, 23 women) pairwise matched on age with neurotypical participants (n = 43, 21 women). Participants watched 28 different pairs of 5 s video recordings of a speaking person: the two videos, simultaneously displayed on the screen, were identical except that gaze was directed at the camera in one video and averted in the other. After a 680 ms transition phase, a short reinforcement animation appeared on the side that had displayed the direct gaze. Results None of the groups showed a preference for mouths over eyes. However, neurotypical participants fixated significantly more the stimuli with direct gaze, while no such preference emerged in autistic participants. As the experiment progressed, neurotypical participants also increasingly anticipated the appearance of the reinforcement, based on the location of the stimulus with the direct gaze, while no such anticipation emerged in autistic participants. Limitations Our autistic participants scored higher on the social anxiety and alexithymia questionnaires than neurotypicals. Future studies should match neurotypical and autistic participants on social anxiety and alexithymia and complement questionnaires with physiological measures of anxiety. Conclusions The absence of preference for direct versus averted gaze in the autistic group is probably due to difficulties in distinguishing eye gaze direction, potentially linked to a reduced spontaneous exploration or avoidance of the eye region. Social attention and preference for direct versus averted gaze correlated with alexithymia and social anxiety scores, but not gender.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise Clin
- ACTE at LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50/175, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Pauline Maes
- ACTE at LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50/175, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Fanny Stercq
- ACTE at LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50/175, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mikhail Kissine
- ACTE at LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50/175, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
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28
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Gonzales-Rojas R, Rana AN, Mason P, Renfro C, Annaluru V, Panda S, Lee HY. The mouse model of fragile X syndrome exhibits deficits in contagious itch behavior. Sci Rep 2020; 10:17679. [PMID: 33077777 PMCID: PMC7573600 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72891-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2019] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) imitate observed behavior less than age-matched and typically developing peers, resulting in deterred learning ability and social interaction. However, this deficit lacks preclinical assessment tools. A previous study has shown that mice exhibit contagious itch behavior while viewing a scratching demonstrator mouse, as opposed to an ambulating demonstrator mouse, but whether autism mouse models imitate observed scratching behavior remains unknown. Here, we investigated contagious itch behavior in the mouse model of fragile X syndrome (FXS), a common form of inherited intellectual disabilities with a high risk for ASDs. We found that the mouse model of FXS shows deficits in contagious itch behavior. Our findings can be used as a new preclinical assessment tool for measuring imitative deficits in the study of neurodevelopmental disorders including FXS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo Gonzales-Rojas
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Amtul-Noor Rana
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Peter Mason
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Christopher Renfro
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Vallabhi Annaluru
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Shree Panda
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Hye Young Lee
- The Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
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29
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Blink and You Will Miss It: a Core Role for Fast and Dynamic Visual Processing in Social Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder. CURRENT DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS REPORTS 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s40474-020-00220-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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30
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Reflections on Eriksen's seminal essay on discrimination, performance and learning without awareness. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 83:546-557. [PMID: 32935288 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02098-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Early in his career C.W. Eriksen published in Psychological Review what turned out to be a highly impactful critique on methods and findings on the topic of unconscious influences on discrimination and awareness. His incisive commentary on extant methodology employed at that time - especially the heavy dependence on subjective reports - clearly was heard by others moving forward, as evidenced by the subsequent, lively discussions within the literature concerning the very definition of the notion of unconscious processing. Of equal importance, Eriksen's paper provided an impetus for the development of more refined techniques for manipulating perceptual awareness and for measuring the consequences of those manipulations. My purpose in this essay is to ensure that Eriksen's seminal contributions concerning unconscious phenomena remain within the awareness of the many current investigators working on this popular topic.
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31
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Baltazar M, Geoffray MM, Chatham C, Bouvard M, Martinez Teruel A, Monnet D, Scheid I, Murzi E, Couffin-Cadiergues S, Umbricht D, Murtagh L, Delorme R, Ly Le-Moal M, Leboyer M, Amestoy A. "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" in Autistic Adults is Modulated by Valence and Difficulty: An InFoR Study. Autism Res 2020; 14:380-388. [PMID: 32929870 PMCID: PMC7891586 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2020] [Revised: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are heterogeneous and complex neurodevelopmental conditions that urgently need reliable and sensitive measures to inform diagnosis properly. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (or Eyes Test from now on) is widely used for this purpose. A recent study showed that subcategories of items of the children version of the Eyes Test could be especially discriminative to distinguish ASD and control children. Here, we analyzed the performance on the Eyes Test of 30 high functioning (IQ > 70) adults with ASD and 29 controls from the InFoR cohort multicentric study, using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model. We found that valence and difficulty modulate the performance on the Eyes Test, with easy and positive items being the most discriminative to distinguish ASD and controls. In particular, we suggest this result might be actionable to discriminate ASD patients from controls in subgroups where their overall scores show less difference with controls. We propose for future research the computation of two additional indexes when using the Eyes Test: the first focusing on the easy and positive items (applying a threshold of 70% of correct responses for these items, above which people are at very low risk of having ASD) and the second focusing on the performance gain from difficult to easy items (with a progression of less than 15% showing high risk of having ASD). Our findings open the possibility for a major change in how the Eyes Test is used to inform diagnosis in ASD. Lay Summary The Eyes Test is used worldwide to inform autism spectrum disorders (ASD) diagnosis. We show here that ASD and neurotypical adults show the most difference in performance on subgroups of items: ASD adults do not improve as expected when comparing easy and difficult items, and they do not show an improvement for items displaying a positive feeling. We advise clinicians to focus on these comparisons to increase the property of the test to distinguish people with ASD from neurotypical adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matias Baltazar
- Centre d'Evaluation et Diagnostic de l'Autisme (CEDA), Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, Bron, France
| | - Marie-Maude Geoffray
- Centre d'Evaluation et Diagnostic de l'Autisme (CEDA), Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, Bron, France
| | | | - Manuel Bouvard
- Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.,Pôle Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, Centre Hospitalier Charles-Perrens, Bordeaux, France.,Centre National Pour La Recherche Scientifique, INCIA UMR 5287, Bordeaux, France.,Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France
| | - Axelle Martinez Teruel
- Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France.,UNIACT, NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France
| | - David Monnet
- Centre Hospitalier de Versailles CHV, Hôpital Mignot, Pôle de Psychiatrie Adulte et Infanto-Juvénile, Centre Expert TSAsdi, Le Chesnay, France
| | | | | | - Sandrine Couffin-Cadiergues
- INSERM, U955, Institut Mondor de Recherches Biomédicales, IMRB, Laboratoire de Neuro-Psychiatrie translationnelle, Créteil, France
| | - Daniel Umbricht
- Roche Innovation Center, F-Hoffmann La Roche Ldt, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Lorraine Murtagh
- Roche Innovation Center, F-Hoffmann La Roche Ldt, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Richard Delorme
- Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France.,Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.,Psychiatry and Addictology Department, Université Paris Est Créteil, AP-HP, DMU ADAPT, Mondor University Hospital, Créteil, France
| | | | - Marion Leboyer
- Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France.,INSERM, U955, Institut Mondor de Recherches Biomédicales, IMRB, Laboratoire de Neuro-Psychiatrie translationnelle, Créteil, France
| | - Anouck Amestoy
- Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.,Pôle Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, Centre Hospitalier Charles-Perrens, Bordeaux, France.,Centre National Pour La Recherche Scientifique, INCIA UMR 5287, Bordeaux, France.,Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France
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32
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Ochi M, Kawabe K, Ochi S, Miyama T, Horiuchi F, Ueno SI. School refusal and bullying in children with autism spectrum disorder. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 2020; 14:17. [PMID: 32419839 PMCID: PMC7206817 DOI: 10.1186/s13034-020-00325-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Few studies have explored school refusal in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), despite being considered a serious problem. One of the leading causes of school refusal is bullying, which is defined by the feelings of students who are bullied or not, and psychological suffering caused by a psychological or physical attack. This study investigated the characteristics of school refusal in children with ASD. METHODS A total of 94 outpatients with school refusal and ASD and 143 outpatients with school refusal without ASD aged 6-18 years were included. Chi squared tests and Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare the characteristics of school refusal in children with and without ASD. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the reasons for school refusal in children with ASD by sex. RESULTS School refusal significantly occurred earlier in children with ASD than in those without. In addition, "bullying" was significantly associated with school refusal in both boys and girls with ASD. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that school refusal should be monitored early in children with ASD. The importance of recognizing bullying among children with ASD should be highlighted as an opportunity for early intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Ochi
- grid.255464.40000 0001 1011 3808Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791-0295 Japan ,Horie Hospital, Matsuyama, Ehime 791-0295 Japan
| | - Kentaro Kawabe
- grid.255464.40000 0001 1011 3808Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791-0295 Japan ,grid.452478.80000 0004 0621 7227Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Ehime University Hospital, Toon, Japan
| | - Shinichiro Ochi
- grid.255464.40000 0001 1011 3808Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791-0295 Japan
| | - Tomoe Miyama
- grid.452478.80000 0004 0621 7227Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Ehime University Hospital, Toon, Japan ,Matsuyama Kinen Hospital, Matsuyama, Ehime 791-0295 Japan
| | - Fumie Horiuchi
- grid.255464.40000 0001 1011 3808Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791-0295 Japan ,grid.452478.80000 0004 0621 7227Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Ehime University Hospital, Toon, Japan
| | - Shu-ichi Ueno
- grid.255464.40000 0001 1011 3808Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791-0295 Japan
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33
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The influence of subcortical shortcuts on disordered sensory and cognitive processing. Nat Rev Neurosci 2020; 21:264-276. [PMID: 32269315 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-020-0287-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The very earliest stages of sensory processing have the potential to alter how we perceive and respond to our environment. These initial processing circuits can incorporate subcortical regions, such as the thalamus and brainstem nuclei, which mediate complex interactions with the brain's cortical processing hierarchy. These subcortical pathways, many of which we share with other animals, are not merely vestigial but appear to function as 'shortcuts' that ensure processing efficiency and preservation of vital life-preserving functions, such as harm avoidance, adaptive social interactions and efficient decision-making. Here, we propose that functional interactions between these higher-order and lower-order brain areas contribute to atypical sensory and cognitive processing that characterizes numerous neuropsychiatric disorders.
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34
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Abdelhamid N, Padmavathy A, Peebles D, Thabtah F, Goulder-Horobin D. Data Imbalance in Autism Pre-Diagnosis Classification Systems: An Experimental Study. JOURNAL OF INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 2020. [DOI: 10.1142/s0219649220400146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Machine learning (ML) is a branch of computer science that is rapidly gaining popularity within the healthcare arena due to its ability to explore large datasets to discover useful patterns that can be interepreted for decision-making and prediction. ML techniques are used for the analysis of clinical parameters and their combinations for prognosis, therapy planning and support and patient management and wellbeing. In this research, we investigate a crucial problem associated with medical applications such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) data imbalances in which cases are far more than just controls in the dataset. In autism diagnosis data, the number of possible instances is linked with one class, i.e. the no ASD is larger than the ASD, and this may cause performance issues such as models favouring the majority class and undermining the minority class. This research experimentally measures the impact of class imbalance issue on the performance of different classifiers on real autism datasets when various data imbalance approaches are utilised in the pre-processing phase. We employ oversampling techniques, such as Synthetic Minority Oversampling (SMOTE), and undersampling with different classifiers including Naive Bayes, RIPPER, C4.5 and Random Forest to measure the impact of these on the performance of the models derived in terms of area under curve and other metrics. Results pinpoint that oversampling techniques are superior to undersampling techniques, at least for the toddlers’ autism dataset that we consider, and suggest that further work should look at incorporating sampling techniques with feature selection to generate models that do not overfit the dataset.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neda Abdelhamid
- IT Programme, Auckland Institute of Studies, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Arun Padmavathy
- Digital Technologies, Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - David Peebles
- Department of Psychology, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
| | - Fadi Thabtah
- Digital Technologies, Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
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35
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Drimalla H, Scheffer T, Landwehr N, Baskow I, Roepke S, Behnia B, Dziobek I. Towards the automatic detection of social biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: introducing the simulated interaction task (SIT). NPJ Digit Med 2020; 3:25. [PMID: 32140568 PMCID: PMC7048784 DOI: 10.1038/s41746-020-0227-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Social interaction deficits are evident in many psychiatric conditions and specifically in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but hard to assess objectively. We present a digital tool to automatically quantify biomarkers of social interaction deficits: the simulated interaction task (SIT), which entails a standardized 7-min simulated dialog via video and the automated analysis of facial expressions, gaze behavior, and voice characteristics. In a study with 37 adults with ASD without intellectual disability and 43 healthy controls, we show the potential of the tool as a diagnostic instrument and for better description of ASD-associated social phenotypes. Using machine-learning tools, we detected individuals with ASD with an accuracy of 73%, sensitivity of 67%, and specificity of 79%, based on their facial expressions and vocal characteristics alone. Especially reduced social smiling and facial mimicry as well as a higher voice fundamental frequency and harmony-to-noise-ratio were characteristic for individuals with ASD. The time-effective and cost-effective computer-based analysis outperformed a majority vote and performed equal to clinical expert ratings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Drimalla
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Digital Health Center, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Prof.-Dr.-Helmert-Str. 2-3, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Tobias Scheffer
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Niels Landwehr
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Irina Baskow
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany
| | - Stefan Roepke
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany
| | - Behnoush Behnia
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany
| | - Isabel Dziobek
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
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36
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Diehl MM, Bravo-Rivera C, Quirk GJ. The study of active avoidance: A platform for discussion. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 107:229-237. [PMID: 31509767 PMCID: PMC6936221 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Traditional active avoidance tasks have advanced the field of aversive learning and memory for decades and are useful for studying simple avoidance responses in isolation; however, these tasks have limited clinical relevance because they do not model several key features of clinical avoidance. In contrast, platform-mediated avoidance (PMA) more closely resembles clinical avoidance because the response i) is associated with an unambiguous safe location, ii) is not associated with an artificial termination of the warning signal, and iii) is associated with a decision-based appetitive cost. Recent findings on the neuronal circuits of PMA have confirmed that amygdala-striatal circuits are essential for avoidance. In PMA, however, the prelimbic cortex facilitates the avoidance response early during the warning signal, perhaps through disinhibition of the striatum. Future studies on avoidance should account for additional factors such as sex differences and social interactions that will advance our understanding of maladaptive avoidance contributing to neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria M Diehl
- Departments of Psychiatry and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, PR, 00936, Puerto Rico; Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506 United States
| | | | - Gregory J Quirk
- Departments of Psychiatry and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, PR, 00936, Puerto Rico.
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37
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Bloch C, Vogeley K, Georgescu AL, Falter-Wagner CM. INTRApersonal Synchrony as Constituent of INTERpersonal Synchrony and Its Relevance for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Front Robot AI 2019; 6:73. [PMID: 33501088 PMCID: PMC7805712 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Accepted: 07/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
INTERpersonal synchrony leads to increased empathy, rapport and understanding, enabling successful human-human interactions and reciprocal bonding. Research shows that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties to INTERpersonally synchronize but underlying causes are yet unknown. In order to successfully synchronize with others, INTRApersonal synchronization of communicative signals appears to be a necessary prerequisite. We understand INTRApersonal synchrony as an implicit factor of INTERpersonal synchrony and therefore hypothesize that atypicalities of INTRApersonal synchrony may add to INTERpersonal synchrony problems in ASD and their interaction partners. In this perspective article, we first review evidence for INTERpersonal dissynchrony in ASD, with respect to different approaches and assessment methods. Second, we draft a theoretical conceptualization of INTRApersonal dissynchrony in ASD based on a temporal model of human interaction. We will outline literature indicating INTRApersonal dissynchrony in ASD, therefore highlighting findings of atypical timing functions and findings from clinical and behavioral studies that indicate peculiar motion patterns and communicative signal production in ASD. Third, we hypothesize that findings from these domains suggest an assessment and investigation of temporal parameters of social behavior in individuals with ASD. We will further propose specific goals of empirical approaches on INTRApersonal dissynchrony. Finally we present implications of research on INTRApersonal timing in ASD for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, what in our opinion warrants the increase of research efforts in this domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carola Bloch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Kai Vogeley
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Alexandra L. Georgescu
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Christine M. Falter-Wagner
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Science, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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McCrackin SD, Itier RJ. Perceived Gaze Direction Differentially Affects Discrimination of Facial Emotion, Attention, and Gender - An ERP Study. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:517. [PMID: 31178686 PMCID: PMC6543003 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2018] [Accepted: 05/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of eye-gaze is thought to be a key component of our everyday social interactions. While the neural correlates of direct and averted gaze processing have been investigated, there is little consensus about how these gaze directions may be processed differently as a function of the task being performed. In a within-subject design, we examined how perception of direct and averted gaze affected performance on tasks requiring participants to use directly available facial cues to infer the individuals' emotional state (emotion discrimination), direction of attention (attention discrimination) and gender (gender discrimination). Neural activity was recorded throughout the three tasks using EEG, and ERPs time-locked to face onset were analyzed. Participants were most accurate at discriminating emotions with direct gaze faces, but most accurate at discriminating attention with averted gaze faces, while gender discrimination was not affected by gaze direction. At the neural level, direct and averted gaze elicited different patterns of activation depending on the task over frontal sites, from approximately 220-290 ms. More positive amplitudes were seen for direct than averted gaze in the emotion discrimination task. In contrast, more positive amplitudes were seen for averted gaze than for direct gaze in the gender discrimination task. These findings are among the first direct evidence that perceived gaze direction modulates neural activity differently depending on task demands, and that at the behavioral level, specific gaze directions functionally overlap with emotion and attention discrimination, precursors to more elaborated theory of mind processes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Roxane J. Itier
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
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Abstract
BACKGROUND The atypical processing of eye contact is a characteristic hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The severity of these symptoms, however, is thought to lie on a continuum that extends into the typical population. While behavioural evidence shows that differences in social cognitive tasks in typically developed (TD) adults are related to the levels of autistic-like traits, it remains unknown whether such a relation exists for the sensitivity to direct gaze. METHODS In two experiments, we measured reaction times to detect the faces with direct and averted gaze, suppressed from awareness, i.e. the access to awareness. In experiment 1, we tested N = 19 clinically diagnosed adults with ASD and N = 22 TD matched controls, while in experiment 2, we tested an independent sample of N = 20 TD adults. RESULTS In line with the literature, experiment 1 showed preferential processing of direct gaze in the TD group but not in the ASD group. Importantly, we found a linear relationship in both experiments between the levels of autistic traits within the groups of TD participants and their sensitivity to direct gaze: with increasing autistic characteristics, there was a decrease in sensitivity to direct gaze. CONCLUSION These results provide the first evidence that differences in gaze processing and the sensitivity to direct gaze are already present in individuals with subclinical levels of autistic traits. Furthermore, they lend support to the continuum view of the disorder and could potentially help in an earlier diagnosis of individuals at high risk for autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam
- Visual Perception Laboratory,Department of Psychiatry,Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health,Charitéplatz 1,10117 Berlin,Germany
| | - Marcus Rothkirch
- Visual Perception Laboratory,Department of Psychiatry,Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health,Charitéplatz 1,10117 Berlin,Germany
| | - Isabel Dziobek
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain,Institute of Psychology,Humboldt Universität zu Berlin,Unter den Linden 6,10099 Berlin,Germany
| | - Philipp Sterzer
- Visual Perception Laboratory,Department of Psychiatry,Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health,Charitéplatz 1,10117 Berlin,Germany
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Wadge H, Brewer R, Bird G, Toni I, Stolk A. Communicative misalignment in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Cortex 2019; 115:15-26. [PMID: 30738998 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2018] [Revised: 12/01/2018] [Accepted: 01/10/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Communication deficits are a defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), manifest during social interactions. Previous studies investigating communicative deficits have largely focused on the perceptual biases, social motivation, cognitive flexibility, or mentalizing abilities of isolated individuals. By embedding autistic individuals in live non-verbal interactions, we characterized a novel cause for their communication deficits. Adults with ASD matched neurotypical individuals in their ability and propensity to generate and modify intelligible behaviors for a communicative partner. However, they struggled to align the meaning of those behaviors with their partner when meaning required referencing their recent communicative history. This communicative misalignment explains why autistic individuals are vulnerable in everyday interactions, which entail fleeting ambiguities, but succeed in social cognition tests involving stereotyped contextual cues. These findings illustrate the cognitive and clinical importance of considering social interaction as a communicative alignment challenge, and how ineffective human communication is without this key interactional ingredient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harshali Wadge
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Rebecca Brewer
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Ivan Toni
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Arjen Stolk
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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Kumazaki H, Yoshikawa Y, Yoshimura Y, Ikeda T, Hasegawa C, Saito DN, Tomiyama S, An KM, Shimaya J, Ishiguro H, Matsumoto Y, Minabe Y, Kikuchi M. The impact of robotic intervention on joint attention in children with autism spectrum disorders. Mol Autism 2018; 9:46. [PMID: 30202508 PMCID: PMC6122716 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-018-0230-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 08/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background A growing body of anecdotal evidence indicates that the use of robots may provide unique opportunities for assisting children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, previous studies investigating the effects of interventions using robots on joint attention (JA) in children with ASD have shown insufficient results. The robots used in these studies could not turn their eyes, which was a limitation preventing the robot from resembling a human agent. Methods We compared the behavior of children with ASD with that of children with typical development (TD) during a JA elicitation task while the children interacted with either a human or a robotic agent. We used the robot "CommU," which has clear eyes and can turn its eyes, for the robotic intervention. The age range of the participants was limited to 5-6 years. Results Sixty-eight participants participated in this study, including 30 (10 females and 20 males) children with ASD and 38 (13 females and 25 males) children with TD. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the following two groups: the robotic intervention group or the control group. JA in the children with ASD was better during the robotic intervention than during the human agent intervention. These children exhibited improved performance in the JA task with human after interacting with the robot CommU. JA was differentially facilitated by the human and robotic agents between the ASD and TD children. Conclusions The findings of this study significantly contribute to the literature on the impact of robots on JA and provide information regarding the suitability of specific robot types for therapeutic use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hirokazu Kumazaki
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan.
| | - Yuichiro Yoshikawa
- Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneryamachou, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan
| | - Yuko Yoshimura
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Takashi Ikeda
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Chiaki Hasegawa
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Daisuke N Saito
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Sara Tomiyama
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Kyung-Min An
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Jiro Shimaya
- Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneryamachou, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Ishiguro
- Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneryamachou, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan
| | - Yoshio Matsumoto
- Service Robotics Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki, 305-8560, Japan
| | - Yoshio Minabe
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
| | - Mitsuru Kikuchi
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan
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