Neural basis of eye gaze processing deficits in autism
Neural basis of eye gaze processing deficits in autism
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DOI：
10.1093/brain/awh404
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发表时间：
2005-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
14.5
通讯作者：
McCarthy, G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pelphrey, KA;Morris, JP;McCarthy, G
使用眼睛凝视建立共同注意力以及理解他人的精神状态和意图方面的障碍是自闭症的显著特征。在这里，我们使用事件相关功能磁共振(FMRI)，我们表明，在自闭症中，参与凝视处理的大脑区域，包括颞上沟(STS)区域，对观察到的凝视转移所传达的意图不敏感。在一致的试验中，受试者看着一个虚拟演员看着出现在她视野中的一个棋盘，这证实了受试者对演员在这种情况下应该做什么的期望。在不一致的审判中，她看向空白，违背了受试者的期望。与我们实验室之前在神经学正常受试者中使用这项任务的报告一致，错误(不一致的试验)在STS和其他与社会认知相关的大脑区域激发了更多的活动，表明意图对典型发育中的受试者(n=9)有很强的影响。在观察自闭症受试者(n=10)的凝视转移时，相同的大脑区域被激活，但没有区分一致和不一致的试验，这表明这些区域的活动不受感知到的凝视转移的背景调节。这些结果表明，自闭症患者眼睛凝视处理下的大脑区域的反应有所不同。我们的结论是，通过视线转移传递不同的意图，缺乏对STS区域的调制，导致了与自闭症相关的眼睛凝视处理缺陷。
Impairments in using eye gaze to establish joint attention and to comprehend the mental states and intentions of other people are striking features of autism. Here, using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), we show that in autism, brain regions involved in gaze processing, including the superior temporal sulcus (STS) region, are not sensitive to intentions conveyed by observed gaze shifts. On congruent trials, subjects watched as a virtual actor looked towards a checkerboard that appeared in her visual field, confirming the subject's expectation regarding what the actor 'ought to do' in this context. On incongruent trials, she looked towards empty space, violating the subject's expectation. Consistent with a prior report from our laboratory that used this task in neurologically normal subjects, 'errors' (incongruent trials) evoked more activity in the STS and other brain regions linked to social cognition, indicating a strong effect of intention in typically developing subjects (n = 9). The same brain regions were activated during observation of gaze shifts in subjects with autism (n = 10), but did not differentiate congruent and incongruent trials, indicating that activity in these regions was not modulated by the context of the perceived gaze shift. These results demonstrate a difference in the response of brain regions underlying eye gaze processing in autism. We conclude that lack of modulation of the STS region by gaze shifts that convey different intentions contributes to the eye gaze processing deficits associated with autism.