Brain mapping study of human communication with a functional magnetic resonance imaging technique : identification of specific brain dysfunction in high-function autistic patients

自闭症是一种以语言和认知功能发育障碍为特征的疾病，被认为与感知他人情绪和意图的能力缺陷有关，这是促进人与人之间交流的基础。在文部科学文部资助期间，我们曾试图阐明与自闭症患者社交功能障碍的病理生理学有关的脑区(S)。研究中使用的范式是识别三种不同情绪(即，快乐、厌恶和恐惧)的面部表情的任务。我们采用了“开”和“关”交替的箱式汽车设计；在“开”条件下，呈现了三种不同情绪的任务；在“关”条件下，呈现了中性面孔。我们对5例右撇子自闭症患者和9例右撇子健康对照进行了扫描。使用非参数分析来检验两组在任务过程中大脑活动的任何差异。在“厌恶”任务中，自闭症受试者左侧脑岛、额叶下回和壳核的大脑活动明显低于对照组。此外，在“恐惧”任务中，自闭症患者的左额中回功能减退。然而，在“快乐”任务中，两组人的大脑活动并没有不同。这些结果表明，大脑边缘系统的区域，特别是左侧，与面部表情的感知有关，这些区域与自闭症障碍形成的生物生理学有关。研究还表明，自闭症患者对面部表情情绪的某些方面(但不是所有方面)的识别存在障碍。

Autistic disorder, a condition that is characterized by the developmental impairment of language and cognitive function, is understood to be related to deficits in the ability of perceiving emotions and intentions of other persons, which is fundamental to facilitate communication between humans. During the period of financial support from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, we had made attempts to elucidate the brain region (s) which is linked with the pathophysiology of social dysfunctions seen in autistic patients. Paradigms used in the study were tasks of recognition of facial expression of three different emotions (i. e., happy, disgust, and fear). We applied an 'on' and 'off' alternating box car design ; in the 'on' condition, each of three different-emotion tasks was presented and, in 'off' condition, neutral faces presented. We performed scanning for 5 right-handed autistic patients and 9 right-handed healthy controls. Any differences in the brain activity during the tasks between the two groups were tested using non-parametric analysis. On the 'disgust' task, autistic subjects showed significantly lower brain activity in the insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen, on the left side compared with controls. Moreover, hypofunction in the left middle frontal gyrus was revealed in autistic patients on the 'fear' task. However, no different brain activity was detected between the two groups on the 'happy' task. These results suggest that brain regions of the limbic system, particularly on the left side, are associated with the perception of facial expressions and that these areas are related to the biophysiology of the formation of autistic disorder. It is also shown that autistic patients have impairments in the recognition of some, but not all, aspects of facially expressed emotions.