The brain response to personally familiar faces in autism: findings of fusiform activity and beyond
The brain response to personally familiar faces in autism: findings of fusiform activity and beyond
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DOI：
10.1093/brain/awh289
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发表时间：
2004-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
14.5
通讯作者：
Courchesne, E
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pierce, K;Haist, F;Courchesne, E
过去对自闭症的功能性磁共振成像（FMRI）研究已经报道了对陌生人面孔的反应减少，主要是在“梭形面孔区”（FFA）。另一种可能更强的自闭症FFA功能测试是试图使用被认为调节该大脑区域功能的因素来影响FFA活性水平，例如面孔熟悉度和面孔身份感知。目前的研究提出了个人有意义的面孔，如母亲和同事，以及陌生人的面孔在一个快速的事件相关的功能磁共振成像设计。7名自闭症患者和9名正常对照组的成年人参与了这项研究，并对所有女性的面孔做出了回应。反卷积分析显示，显着的FFA活动，在自闭症和正常对照组的熟悉和陌生人的面孔。孤独症患者在面对熟悉面孔时的梭状回活动也比面对陌生面孔时的梭状回活动更强，而且在面对这两种面孔时，大脑右半球都处于典型的优势地位。正常受试者对熟悉的面孔在后扣带回、杏仁核和内侧额叶（包括前扣带回）表现出额外的激活。自闭症受试者对熟悉面孔的反应表现出类似但更有限的网络。这个网络包括杏仁核，这意味着这个结构，参与多种社会情感功能，可以在自闭症中的刺激，代表高奖励价值，如母亲的脸的存在下作出反应。此外，自闭症中存在一个独特的网络来处理熟悉的面孔，其中包括边缘系统结构，并且在对陌生人面孔的反应中没有发现，这表明自闭症中存在社会情绪处理。然而，一个潜在的值得注意的趋势是自闭症组的内侧额叶功能下降的证据。自闭症患者FFA活动的主要发现与过去大多数关于自闭症患者面部处理的功能磁共振成像研究相反。这一积极的结果可能反映了自闭症参与者使用个人重要的面孔，增强了注意力和动机。此外，考虑到FFA在确定个人身份方面的拟议作用，为每个参与者使用近12个不同的个人熟悉面孔（总共32个非重复面孔）可能会进一步最大化FFA的参与。因此，在其他自闭症研究中发现的FFA功能障碍可能反映了调节FFA的系统的缺陷，而不是FFA本身。
Past functional MRI (FMRI) studies of autism have reported reduced activation in response to the faces of strangers primarily in the 'fusiform face area' (FFA). An alternative and potentially stronger test of FFA function in autism is one that attempts to affect levels of FFA activity using factors believed to modulate function in this brain region, such as face familiarity and the perception of face identity. The current study presented personally meaningful faces, such as mother and co-worker, as well as stranger faces in a rapid event-related FMRI design. Seven autistic and nine normal control adults participated and pressed a button in response to all female faces. A deconvolution analysis revealed significant FFA activity in response to familiar and stranger faces in both autism and normal control groups. Individuals with autism also showed greater fusiform activity in response to familiar faces than stranger faces, as well as the prototypical right hemisphere dominance in response to both types of faces. Normal subjects showed additional activation to familiar faces in the posterior cingulate, amygdala and medial frontal lobes, including the anterior cingulate. Subjects with autism showed a similar, but more limited, network in response to familiar faces. This network included the amygdala and implies that this structure, involved in multiple socio-emotional functions, can be responsive in autism in the presence of stimuli that represent high reward value, such as mother's face. Furthermore, the presence of a distinct network to process familiar faces in autism, one that included limbic structures and was not found in response to the faces of strangers, suggests socio-emotional processing in autism. A potentially noteworthy trend, however, was evidence for a reduction in medial frontal lobe function in the autism group. The main finding of FFA activity in autism stands in contrast to most past FMRI studies of face processing in this disorder. This positive result may reflect the use of personally significant faces that enhanced attention and motivation in the autistic participants. Furthermore, given the proposed role of the FFA in establishing person identity, the use of almost a dozen different personally familiar faces for each participant (totalling 32 non-repeating faces) may have additionally maximized FFA involvement. Therefore, dysfunction in the FFA found in other studies of autism may reflect defects in systems that modulate the FFA, rather than the FFA itself.