Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder.
Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder.
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DOI：
10.1002/hbm.22840
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发表时间：
2015-09
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Fan J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gu X;Eilam-Stock T;Zhou T;Anagnostou E;Kolevzon A;Soorya L;Hof PR;Friston KJ;Fan J
越来越多的证据表明，自主神经信号及其大脑皮层表达与情绪过程密切相关，相关的异常可能会导致社交缺陷。尽管社会情绪障碍是自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的一个决定性特征，但直接支持ASD自主神经、皮质和社会情绪异常之间的联系的经验证据仍然缺乏。在这项研究中，我们检测了17名未服用药物的高功能自闭症成年人和17名匹配的对照组在执行移情换痛任务时，通过皮肤电导反应(SCR)、通过功能磁共振成像测量的并发皮质反应以及通过动态因果模型估计的有效大脑连接性的自主神经唤醒指数。与对照组相比，成人ASD患者表现出与共鸣疼痛相关的SCR增强，并伴随着前岛叶皮质神经活动的增加，尽管他们行为上的共鸣疼痛的辨别力降低，总体SCR降低。ASD患者的SCR与前岛叶皮质神经活动的相关性也增强。重要的是，ASD组在有效脑连通性方面的显著差异仅限于ASD组中前岛叶皮质的负内在连通性更大程度上的减少，表明未能减弱前岛叶对同理心疼痛的反应。这些结果表明，以自主神经活动异常及其中枢表征为指标的异常的内感精确度可能是ASD共情缺陷的基础。Hum Brain Mapp 36：3323-3338,2015。©2015作者人脑图谱由Wiley期刊出版公司出版。
Accumulating evidence suggests that autonomic signals and their cortical representations are closely linked to emotional processes, and that related abnormalities could lead to social deficits. Although socio‐emotional impairments are a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), empirical evidence directly supporting the link between autonomic, cortical, and socio‐emotional abnormalities in ASD is still lacking. In this study, we examined autonomic arousal indexed by skin conductance responses (SCR), concurrent cortical responses measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging, and effective brain connectivity estimated by dynamic causal modeling in seventeen unmedicated high‐functioning adults with ASD and seventeen matched controls while they performed an empathy‐for‐pain task. Compared to controls, adults with ASD showed enhanced SCR related to empathetic pain, along with increased neural activity in the anterior insular cortex, although their behavioral empathetic pain discriminability was reduced and overall SCR was decreased. ASD individuals also showed enhanced correlation between SCR and neural activities in the anterior insular cortex. Importantly, significant group differences in effective brain connectivity were limited to greater reduction in the negative intrinsic connectivity of the anterior insular cortex in the ASD group, indicating a failure in attenuating anterior insular responses to empathetic pain. These results suggest that aberrant interoceptive precision, as indexed by abnormalities in autonomic activity and its central representations, may underlie empathy deficits in ASD. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3323–3338, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published byWiley Periodicals, Inc.