A specific hypoactivation of right temporo-parietal junction/posterior superior temporal sulcus in response to socially awkward situations in autism.
A specific hypoactivation of right temporo-parietal junction/posterior superior temporal sulcus in response to socially awkward situations in autism.
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DOI：
10.1093/scan/nsv021
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发表时间：
2015-10
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
Peter C. Pantelis;Lisa Byrge;J. Tyszka;R. Adolphs;Daniel P. Kennedy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Peter C. Pantelis;Lisa Byrge;J. Tyszka;R. Adolphs;Daniel P. Kennedy
患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的人在现实世界中遇到的复杂、动态的环境中往往难以理解社会情境。为了研究在近似自然情境下的社会大脑，我们用功能性磁共振成像测量了大脑活动：当参与者观看情景喜剧《办公室》的完整集时。通过独立的对照样本，我们量化了事件中每个时刻的社交尴尬程度，我们发现，在更尴尬的时刻，患有ASD的个体和对照组参与者都表现出与社会感知和认知相关的几个大脑区域（例如那些构成“心智网络”的区域）的可靠激活。然而，与对照组相比，ASD患者在右颞顶交界处（RTPJ）附近延伸至右颞上沟（RSTS）后端的区域表现出较少的活动。进一步的分析表明，尽管实验设计具有自由形式的性质，但这种组间差异仅局限于心智化网络的RTPJ/RSTS区域；其他感兴趣的区域在位置和强度方面也表现出类似的活动。这些发现进一步支持了一系列证据，表明RTPJ/RSTS在各种模式的社会过程中起着特殊的作用，并且可能在ASD患者在社交世界中发挥非典型的作用。
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty comprehending social situations in the complex, dynamic contexts encountered in the real world. To study the social brain under conditions which approximate naturalistic situations, we measured brain activity with FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING: while participants watched a full-length episode of the sitcom The Office. Having quantified the degree of social awkwardness at each moment of the episode, as judged by an independent sample of controls, we found that both individuals with ASD and control participants showed reliable activation of several brain regions commonly associated with social perception and cognition (e.g. those comprising the 'mentalizing network') during the more awkward moments. However, individuals with ASD showed less activity than controls in a region near right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) extending into the posterior end of the right superior temporal sulcus (RSTS). Further analyses suggested that, despite the free-form nature of the experimental design, this group difference was specific to this RTPJ/RSTS area of the mentalizing network; other regions of interest showed similar activity across groups with respect to both location and magnitude. These findings add support to a body of evidence suggesting that RTPJ/RSTS plays a special role in social processes across modalities and may function atypically in individuals with ASD navigating the social world.