The fusiform and amygalda in the pathobiology of autism

描述(申请人提供)：人脸识别技能是有效社交技能的重要基础。患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD：自闭症、阿斯伯格综合症和广泛性发育障碍)的人在识别面孔的方式上存在各种缺陷，包括依赖于个别面部特征(特别是嘴巴而不是眼睛)，而不是典型的整体处理面孔的模式。ASD患者面部知觉的功能磁共振成像(FMRI)研究表明，左侧杏仁核和右侧梭形回外侧两个大脑结构功能异常。这些发现特别重要，因为它们是第一个被多个实验室独立证实参与自闭症病理生物学的大脑区域。这两种结构在自闭症病理生物学中的作用通过尸检和常规结构MRI的大体神经解剖学研究进一步得到证实。然而，关于调节这些大脑区域活动的参数，无论是在典型的发育中的人还是在患有自闭症的人中，仍然有许多重要的问题需要回答。R01应用程序中的实验旨在通过一系列系统的功能磁共振研究来扩展我们在这一领域的现有知识。这些研究利用红外眼跟踪技术来研究扫描路径和区域大脑活动之间的关系。这些研究涉及系统地操纵参数，这些参数被认为调节这两个大脑区域的活动水平和它们之间的功能连接。总而言之，我们提出了4项功能磁共振成像研究的链接系列，每项研究都涉及18名ASD患者和18名典型发育中的对照组(TDCs)的比较。我们假设ASD中梭形核和杏仁核的低活动是由(1)注意力和知觉焦点的变化；(2)刺激参数的各个方面(例如，面部情绪的程度)；以及(3)信息通过皮质和皮质下视觉通路传递时，梭形核和杏仁核之间的相互作用所调节的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Face recognition skills are an important substrate of effective social skills. Persons with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD: autism, asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) have a variety of deficits in the manner in which they recognize faces, including a reliance on individual facial features (particularly the mouth and not eyes) rather than the typical pattern of processing faces holistically. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) of face perception in ASD have shown that two brain structures - the left amygdala and the lateral aspect of the right fusiform gyrus are functionally abnormal. These findings are especially significant because they are the first brain areas to be independently confirmed by multiple labs as involved in the pathobiology of ASDs. The role of these two structures in pathobiology of ASDs is further substantiated by postmortem brain studies and gross neuroanatomical studies using conventional structural MRI. However, there remain many important questions to be answered about the parameters that modulate activity in these brain regions, both in typically developing persons and in persons with an ASD. The experiments in this R01 application are designed to extend our current knowledge in this area through a systematic series of fMRI studies. These studies make use of infra red eye tracking technology to study the relationship between scan paths and regional brain activity. These studies involve systematic manipulation of parameters that are believed to modulate level of activity in these 2 brain areas and the functional connectivity between them. In total, we propose a link series of 4 fMRI studies, each involving a comparison between 18 persons with an ASD and 18 typically developing controls (TDCs). We hypothesis that the hypoactivation of the fusiform and amygdala in ASD is mediated by (1) variation in attention and focus of perception; (2) aspects of the stimulus parameters (e.g., degree of facial emotion); and (3) interactions between the fusiform and amygdala as information comes through cortical and subcortical visual pathways.