The social brain in autism: Emotion through body motion

自闭症的社交大脑：通过身体运动产生情感

• 批准号: 417034014
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Andreas Jochen Fallgatter
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Allgemeine Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie mit Poliklinik
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/417034014?language=en
• 关键词: social; brain; autism; Emotion; through

The project is aimed at investigation of deficits in visual recognition of emotions through body motion in persons with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Veridical social cognition is of tremendous value for a variety of daily life activities. Perception and understanding of social characteristics of others (such as intentions, drives, and emotions) are impaired in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Most of these disorders including autism are gender-specific. Earlier studies indicate that autistic individuals exhibit deficits in both social cognition and visual processing of body motion. It is unclear whether aberrant body motion (BM) processing in autistic individuals can indicate impairments in social cognition. Previous data are primarily restricted to localization of brain regions underlying social cognition. The important rationale for this proposal is a desire to uncover time course and dynamic topography of brain networks. By combination of brain imaging (magnetoencephalography, MEG, providing for high temporal resolution) with visual psychophysics, we plan to clarify: (1.1) how brain mechanisms underlying recognition of emotions through BM differ in autistic persons in terms of dynamic topography; and (1.2) whether neuronal communication in the social brain is altered in autistic persons. By using identical visual input with re-directing tasks either to BM processing or body language reading, the first part of the project confirmed our hypothesis that BM processing and body language reading are tightly related to each other, but this bond is gender-specific. By taking advantage of the point-light technique that helps to minimize information revealed by BM and implementing three experimental paradigms adapted to the specificity of MEG recording (point-light BM, point-light face motion, and reading in the eyes), we intend to investigate: (1) whether brain networks underlying two indispensable components of social cognition, namely, body language reading and face reading (including reading in the eyes) are impaired in autism; and (3) whether impairments of neural networks for social cognition in autism are gender-specific. A related issue is how gender differences in performance relate to possible differences in the social brain in autistic individuals. The outcome will substantially contribute to developing new and improving already existing intervention models in autism, and remediate nonverbal communication and social participation. On the other hand, uncovering the nature of social deficits in autism will shed light on functioning of the social brain in normalcy.

该项目旨在调查自闭症谱系障碍患者通过身体运动视觉识别情感的缺陷。真实的社会认知对于各种日常生活活动具有巨大的价值。在许多神经精神障碍中，对他人社会特征（如意图、驱动力和情绪）的感知和理解受损。包括自闭症在内的大多数疾病都是性别特异性的。早期的研究表明，自闭症患者在社会认知和身体运动的视觉处理方面都表现出缺陷。目前尚不清楚自闭症个体的异常身体运动（BM）处理是否表明社会认知障碍。以前的数据主要局限于社会认知的大脑区域的定位。这一提议的重要理由是希望揭示大脑网络的时间过程和动态拓扑。通过脑成像（脑磁图，MEG，提供高时间分辨率）与视觉心理物理学的结合，我们计划澄清：（1.1）通过BM识别情绪的脑机制如何在自闭症患者中的动态地形图方面有所不同;（1.2）自闭症患者社交脑中的神经元通信是否改变。通过使用相同的视觉输入，将任务重定向到BM处理或肢体语言阅读，该项目的第一部分证实了我们的假设，即BM处理和肢体语言阅读是紧密相关的，但这种联系是有性别特异性的。通过利用点光技术，有助于最大限度地减少BM显示的信息，并实施了三个适合MEG记录特异性的实验范式，（点光BM、点光面部运动和眼睛中的阅读），我们打算研究：（1）大脑网络是否构成社会认知的两个不可或缺的组成部分，即，自闭症患者的肢体语言阅读和面部阅读（包括眼睛中的阅读）受损;（3）自闭症患者的社会认知神经网络受损是否具有性别特异性。一个相关的问题是，自闭症患者表现的性别差异如何与社交大脑的可能差异相关。其结果将大大有助于开发新的和改善现有的自闭症干预模式，并纠正非语言交流和社会参与。另一方面，揭示自闭症社会缺陷的本质将揭示正常情况下社会脑的功能。