Perez Velazquez J L, Barcelo F, Hung Y, Leshchenko Y, Nenadovic V, Belkas J, Raghavan V, Brian J, Garcia Dominguez L
Brain and Behaviour Centre, Neurosciences & Mental Health Programme, Division of Neurology, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G1X8, Canada.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2009 Sep;73(3):341-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2009.05.009. Epub 2009 May 22.
Current theories of brain function propose that the coordinated integration of transient activity patterns in distinct brain regions is the essence of brain information processing. The behavioural manifestations of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) suggest that their brains have a different style of information processing. Specifically, a current trend is to invoke functional disconnection in the brains of individuals with ASD as a possible explanation for some atypicalities in the behaviour of these individuals. Our observations indicate that the coordinated activity in brains of children with autism is lower than that found in control participants. Disruption of long-range phase synchronization among frontal, parietal and occipital areas was found, derived from magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings, in high-functioning children with ASD during the performance of executive function tasks and was associated with impaired execution, while enhanced long-range brain synchronization was observed in control children. Specifically, a more significant prefrontal synchronization was found in control participants during task performance. In addition, a robust enhancement in synchrony was observed in the parietal cortex of children with ASD relative to controls, which may be related to parietal lobe abnormalities detected in these individuals. These results, using synchronization analysis of brain electrical signals, provide support for the contention that brains of individuals with autism may not be as functionally connected as that of the controls, and may suggest some therapeutic interventions to improve information processing in specific brain areas, particularly prefrontal cortices.
当前的脑功能理论提出，不同脑区瞬态活动模式的协调整合是脑信息处理的本质。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体的行为表现表明，他们的大脑具有不同的信息处理方式。具体而言，当前的一种趋势是将ASD个体大脑中的功能连接中断作为这些个体行为中某些异常情况的一种可能解释。我们的观察结果表明，自闭症儿童大脑中的协调活动低于对照组参与者。通过脑磁图（MEG）记录发现，在执行功能任务期间，高功能ASD儿童的额叶、顶叶和枕叶区域之间的远程相位同步受到破坏，这与执行功能受损有关，而在对照儿童中观察到增强的远程脑同步。具体来说，在任务执行期间，对照组参与者的前额叶同步更为显著。此外，相对于对照组，ASD儿童的顶叶皮质同步性有显著增强，这可能与在这些个体中检测到的顶叶异常有关。这些使用脑电信号同步分析的结果，为自闭症个体的大脑功能连接可能不如对照组紧密这一观点提供了支持，并可能暗示一些治疗干预措施，以改善特定脑区，特别是前额叶皮质的信息处理。
