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You Y, Correas A, White DR, Wagner LC, Jao Keehn RJ, Rosen BQ, Alemu K, Müller RA, Marinkovic K. Mapping access to meaning in adolescents with autism: Atypical lateralization and spatiotemporal patterns as a function of language ability. Neuroimage Clin 2023; 39:103467. [PMID: 37454468 PMCID: PMC10371850 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103467] [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: 01/08/2023] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/02/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) vary in their language abilities, associated with atypical patterns of brain activity. However, few studies have examined the spatiotemporal profiles of lexico-semantic processing in ASD, particularly as a function of language heterogeneity. Thirty-nine high-functioning adolescents with ASD and 21 typically developing (TD) peers took part in a lexical decision task that combined semantic access with demands on cognitive control. Spatiotemporal characteristics of the processing stages were examined with a multimodal anatomically-constrained magnetoencephalography (aMEG) approach, which integrates MEG with structural MRI. Additional EEG data were acquired from a limited montage simultaneously with MEG. TD adolescents showed the canonical left-dominant activity in frontotemporal regions during both early (N250m) and late (N400m) stages of lexical access and semantic integration. In contrast, the ASD participants showed bilateral engagement of the frontotemporal language network, indicative of compensatory recruitment of the right hemisphere. The left temporal N400m was prominent in both groups, confirming preserved attempts to access meaning. In contrast, the left prefrontal N400m was reduced in ASD participants, consistent with impaired semantic/contextual integration and inhibitory control. To further investigate the impact of language proficiency, the ASD sample was stratified into high- and low-performing (H-ASD and L-ASD) subgroups based on their task accuracy. The H-ASD subgroup performed on par with the TD group and showed greater activity in the right prefrontal and bilateral temporal cortices relative to the L-ASD subgroup, suggesting compensatory engagement. The L-ASD subgroup additionally showed reduced and delayed left prefrontal N400m, consistent with more profound semantic and executive impairments in this subgroup. These distinct spatiotemporal activity profiles reveal the neural underpinnings of the ASD-specific access to meaning and provide insight into the phenotypic heterogeneity of language in ASD, which may be a result of different neurodevelopmental trajectories and adoption of compensatory strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuqi You
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States; Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Angeles Correas
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - David R White
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Laura C Wagner
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - R Joanne Jao Keehn
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Burke Q Rosen
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States; Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Kalekirstos Alemu
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Ralph-Axel Müller
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States; Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University and University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Ksenija Marinkovic
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States; Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University and University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States; Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States.
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Davidenko N, Kopalle H, Bridgeman B. The Upper Eye Bias: Rotated Faces Draw Fixations to the Upper Eye. Perception 2018; 48:162-174. [PMID: 30588863 DOI: 10.1177/0301006618819628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
There is a consistent left-gaze bias when observers fixate upright faces, but it is unknown how this bias manifests in rotated faces, where the two eyes appear at different heights on the face. In two eye-tracking experiments, we measured participants' first and second fixations, while they judged the expressions of upright and rotated faces. We hypothesized that rotated faces might elicit a bias to fixate the upper eye. Our results strongly confirmed this hypothesis, with the upper eye bias completely dominating the left-gaze bias in ±45° faces in Experiment 1, and across a range of face orientations (±11.25°, ±22.5°, ±33.75°, ±45°, and ±90°) in Experiment 2. In addition, rotated faces elicited more overall eye-directed fixations than upright faces. We consider potential mechanisms of the upper eye bias in rotated faces and discuss some implications for research in social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Davidenko
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
| | - Hema Kopalle
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Bruce Bridgeman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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The sequence of cortical activity inferred by response latency variability in the human ventral pathway of face processing. Sci Rep 2018; 8:5836. [PMID: 29643441 PMCID: PMC5895585 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23942-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 03/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Variability in neuronal response latency has been typically considered caused by random noise. Previous studies of single cells and large neuronal populations have shown that the temporal variability tends to increase along the visual pathway. Inspired by these previous studies, we hypothesized that functional areas at later stages in the visual pathway of face processing would have larger variability in the response latency. To test this hypothesis, we used magnetoencephalographic data collected when subjects were presented with images of human faces. Faces are known to elicit a sequence of activity from the primary visual cortex to the fusiform gyrus. Our results revealed that the fusiform gyrus showed larger variability in the response latency compared to the calcarine fissure. Dynamic and spectral analyses of the latency variability indicated that the response latency in the fusiform gyrus was more variable than in the calcarine fissure between 70 ms and 200 ms after the stimulus onset and between 4 Hz and 40 Hz, respectively. The sequential processing of face information from the calcarine sulcus to the fusiform sulcus was more reliably detected based on sizes of the response variability than instants of the maximal response peaks. With two areas in the ventral visual pathway, we show that the variability in response latency across brain areas can be used to infer the sequence of cortical activity.
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