The social brain in autism: Emotion through body motion

该项目旨在调查自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者通过身体运动对情绪的视觉识别缺陷。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，对他人的社会特征(如意图、驱动力和情绪)的感知和理解受到损害。包括自闭症在内的大多数这些障碍都是性别特有的。早期的研究表明，自闭症患者在社会认知和对身体运动的视觉处理方面都存在缺陷。目前尚不清楚自闭症患者的异常身体运动(BM)处理是否表明社会认知受损。以前的数据主要局限于社会认知基础的大脑区域的定位。这一提议的重要理论基础是希望发现大脑网络的时间进程和动态地形图。通过将大脑成像(提供高时间分辨率的脑磁图，MEG)与视觉心理物理学相结合，我们计划阐明：(1.1)自闭症患者通过BM识别情绪的大脑机制在动态地形图方面有何不同；以及(1.2)自闭症患者社交大脑中的神经元交流是否发生改变。通过使用相同的视觉输入，并将任务重新定向到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彼此密切相关，但这种联系是性别特有的。通过利用有助于最大限度地减少BM所透露的信息的点光技术，并实施三种适应脑磁图记录特殊性的实验范式(点光BM、点光人脸运动和眼睛阅读)，我们打算调查：(1)自闭症患者是否存在社会认知的两个不可或缺的组成部分，即肢体语言阅读和面孔阅读(包括眼睛阅读)的大脑网络受损；以及(3)自闭症患者社会认知神经网络的损害是否具有性别特异性。一个相关的问题是，自闭症患者在表现上的性别差异如何与社交大脑中可能的差异有关。这一结果将大大有助于开发新的和改进现有的自闭症干预模式，并补救非语言交流和社会参与。另一方面，揭示自闭症社交缺陷的本质将有助于揭示社交大脑在正常状态下的运作。

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.