Look me in the eyes: constraining gaze in the eye-region provokes abnormally high subcortical activation in autism.
Look me in the eyes: constraining gaze in the eye-region provokes abnormally high subcortical activation in autism.
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-017-03378-5
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发表时间：
2017-06-09
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Gillberg C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hadjikhani N;Åsberg Johnels J;Zürcher NR;Lassalle A;Guillon Q;Hippolyte L;Billstedt E;Ward N;Lemonnier E;Gillberg C
患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的个体似乎很难直视他人的眼睛，但这种行为的基础尚未得到很好的理解。皮层下通路由上丘、丘脑枕核和杏仁核组成，能够实现快速和自动的人脸处理。这条通路的一个特定组成部分——即杏仁核——已被证明在个体必须特别注意眼睛区域的范式中异常激活；然而，对操纵注视眼睛区域对皮层下系统的所有组成部分的影响的直接检查从未被执行过。皮层下系统特别重要，因为它在发育过程中塑造了面部处理皮层的功能专门化。利用功能性磁共振成像技术，研究了ASD患者和正常对照组在动态情绪面部知觉过程中眼区限制性凝视的影响。我们计算了皮层下面部处理系统（丘脑上丘、丘脑枕核和杏仁核）在自由或眼睛区域受限的相同刺激下的激活差异。我们的研究结果表明，当被迫直视眼睛时，ASD患者的皮层下系统表现出异常高的激活，这可能是他们在日常生活中回避眼睛的基础。
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) seem to have difficulties looking others in the eyes, but the substrate for this behavior is not well understood. The subcortical pathway, which consists of superior colliculus, pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, and amygdala, enables rapid and automatic face processing. A specific component of this pathway – i.e., the amygdala – has been shown to be abnormally activated in paradigms where individuals had to specifically attend to the eye-region; however, a direct examination of the effect of manipulating the gaze to the eye-regions on all the components of the subcortical system altogether has never been performed. The subcortical system is particularly important as it shapes the functional specialization of the face-processing cortex during development. Using functional MRI, we investigated the effect of constraining gaze in the eye-region during dynamic emotional face perception in groups of participants with ASD and typical controls. We computed differences in activation in the subcortical face processing system (superior colliculus, pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus and amygdala) for the same stimuli seen freely or with the gaze constrained in the eye-region. Our results show that when constrained to look in the eyes, individuals with ASD show abnormally high activation in the subcortical system, which may be at the basis of their eye avoidance in daily life.