Autism Research Centre, Douglas House, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK.
Brain. 2010 Feb;133(Pt 2):611-24. doi: 10.1093/brain/awp306. Epub 2009 Dec 13.
The 'self' is a complex multidimensional construct deeply embedded and in many ways defined by our relations with the social world. Individuals with autism are impaired in both self-referential and other-referential social cognitive processing. Atypical neural representation of the self may be a key to understanding the nature of such impairments. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we scanned adult males with an autism spectrum condition and age and IQ-matched neurotypical males while they made reflective mentalizing or physical judgements about themselves or the British Queen. Neurotypical individuals preferentially recruit the middle cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in response to self compared with other-referential processing. In autism, ventromedial prefrontal cortex responded equally to self and other, while middle cingulate cortex responded more to other-mentalizing than self-mentalizing. These atypical responses occur only in areas where self-information is preferentially processed and does not affect areas that preferentially respond to other-referential information. In autism, atypical neural self-representation was also apparent via reduced functional connectivity between ventromedial prefrontal cortex and areas associated with lower level embodied representations, such as ventral premotor and somatosensory cortex. Furthermore, the magnitude of neural self-other distinction in ventromedial prefrontal cortex was strongly related to the magnitude of early childhood social impairments in autism. Individuals whose ventromedial prefrontal cortex made the largest distinction between mentalizing about self and other were least socially impaired in early childhood, while those whose ventromedial prefrontal cortex made little to no distinction between mentalizing about self and other were the most socially impaired in early childhood. These observations reveal that the atypical organization of neural circuitry preferentially coding for self-information is a key mechanism at the heart of both self-referential and social impairments in autism.
自我是一个复杂的多维结构，深深植根于我们与社会世界的关系中，并在许多方面受到这些关系的影响。自闭症个体在自我参照和他人参照的社会认知处理方面都存在障碍。自我的非典型神经表现可能是理解这种障碍本质的关键。我们使用功能磁共振成像技术扫描了患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年男性和年龄、智商匹配的神经典型男性，让他们对自己或英国女王进行反思性心理化或身体判断。与他人参照处理相比，神经典型个体在进行自我参照处理时优先激活中扣带回和腹内侧前额叶皮层。在自闭症中，腹内侧前额叶皮层对自我和他人的反应相同，而中扣带回对他人心理化的反应比对自我心理化的反应更强。这些非典型反应仅发生在优先处理自我信息的区域，而不会影响优先响应他人参照信息的区域。在自闭症中，通过腹内侧前额叶皮层与与较低层次的具身表现相关的区域（如腹侧前运动皮层和躯体感觉皮层）之间的功能连接减少，也可以明显看出异常的神经自我表现。此外，腹内侧前额叶皮层中神经自我与他人的区分程度与自闭症中幼儿期社会障碍的严重程度密切相关。腹内侧前额叶皮层在对自我和他人进行心理化时区分程度最大的个体，在幼儿期的社会障碍最小，而腹内侧前额叶皮层在对自我和他人进行心理化时几乎没有区分的个体，在幼儿期的社会障碍最大。这些观察结果表明，优先编码自我信息的神经回路的非典型组织是自闭症中自我参照和社会障碍的核心机制。
