Fractionation of social brain circuits in autism spectrum disorders
Fractionation of social brain circuits in autism spectrum disorders
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DOI：
10.1093/brain/aws160
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发表时间：
2012-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
14.5
通讯作者：
Martin, Alex
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gotts, Stephen J.;Simmons, W. Kyle;Martin, Alex
自闭症谱系障碍是一种发育障碍，其特征是社交和沟通能力受损以及重复行为。越来越多的神经科学证据表明，自闭症谱系障碍的神经病理学分布广泛，涉及整个大脑的连接受损。在此，我们评估这样一种假设：与正常发育的青少年相比，高功能自闭症谱系障碍青少年的连接性降低集中在专门用于社会处理的特定领域回路内。通过在功能性磁共振成像中使用一种新的全脑连接方法，我们发现连接性的降低不仅在社会脑区域之间最为显著，而且对于涉及社会处理情感方面的边缘系统相关脑区域与支持语言和感觉运动过程的社会脑其他部分之间的连接具有选择性。这种选择性模式是通过与社会症状严重程度的测量值相关联而独立获得的，这意味着在整个回路层面上自闭症谱系障碍中社会脑的分裂。
Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disorders characterized by impairments in social and communication abilities and repetitive behaviours. Converging neuroscientific evidence has suggested that the neuropathology of autism spectrum disorders is widely distributed, involving impaired connectivity throughout the brain. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that decreased connectivity in high-functioning adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder relative to typically developing adolescents is concentrated within domain-specific circuits that are specialized for social processing. Using a novel whole-brain connectivity approach in functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that not only are decreases in connectivity most pronounced between regions of the social brain but also they are selective to connections between limbic-related brain regions involved in affective aspects of social processing from other parts of the social brain that support language and sensorimotor processes. This selective pattern was independently obtained for correlations with measures of social symptom severity, implying a fractionation of the social brain in autism spectrum disorders at the level of whole circuits.