Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context.
Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context.
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DOI：
10.1093/brain/awl032
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发表时间：
2006-04
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Wang;Susan S. Lee;M. Sigman;M. Dapretto
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Wang;Susan S. Lee;M. Sigman;M. Dapretto
虽然患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的人通常在解释他人的交流意图方面受到损害，但人们对更高级别的语用障碍的神经基础知之甚少。在这里，我们使用功能性 MRI (fMRI) 来检查患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的高功能儿童在理解反讽方面存在缺陷的神经回路。参与者聆听简短的场景并判断演讲者是真诚的还是讽刺的。我们使用了三种类型的场景，在这些场景中我们改变了可用的信息来指导这一决策。场景包括（i）了解事件结果和强烈的韵律提示（真诚或讽刺语调），（ii）仅韵律提示或（iii）仅了解事件结果。尽管患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的儿童的表现远远高于偶然性，但他们在解释潜在讽刺言论背后的交流意图方面，尤其是在利用现有的上下文信息方面，不如典型发育（TD）儿童准确。先前的研究表明，与理解他人心理状态相关的区域活动不足，而与 TD 儿童相比，自闭症谱系障碍儿童的右额下回 (IFG) 以及双侧颞区的活动明显增强。 ASD 组的活动增加属于 TD 组招募的网络，可能反映出解释话语的预期含义所需的更多努力的处理。这些结果证实，患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童很难解释他人的交流意图，并表明当任务要求需要明确关注社会相关线索时，这些人可以招募被激活的区域作为规范神经回路的一部分。
While individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are typically impaired in interpreting the communicative intent of others, little is known about the neural bases of higher-level pragmatic impairments. Here, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine the neural circuitry underlying deficits in understanding irony in high-functioning children with ASD. Participants listened to short scenarios and decided whether the speaker was sincere or ironic. Three types of scenarios were used in which we varied the information available to guide this decision. Scenarios included (i) both knowledge of the event outcome and strong prosodic cues (sincere or sarcastic intonation), (ii) prosodic cues only or (iii) knowledge of the event outcome only. Although children with ASD performed well above chance, they were less accurate than typically developing (TD) children at interpreting the communicative intent behind a potentially ironic remark, particularly with regard to taking advantage of available contextual information. In contrast to prior research showing hypoactivation of regions involved in understanding the mental states of others, children with ASD showed significantly greater activity than TD children in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) as well as in bilateral temporal regions. Increased activity in the ASD group fell within the network recruited in the TD group and may reflect more effortful processing needed to interpret the intended meaning of an utterance. These results confirm that children with ASD have difficulty interpreting the communicative intent of others and suggest that these individuals can recruit regions activated as part of the normative neural circuitry when task demands require explicit attention to socially relevant cues.