Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute, University of California-Davis, USA.
Dev Sci. 2011 Sep;14(5):1075-88. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01058.x. Epub 2011 Jun 18.
Recent evidence suggests those with autism may be generally impaired in visual motion perception. To examine this, we investigated both coherent and biological motion processing in adolescents with autism employing both psychophysical and fMRI methods. Those with autism performed as well as matched controls during coherent motion perception but had significantly higher thresholds for biological motion perception. The autism group showed reduced posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (pSTS), parietal and frontal activity during a biological motion task while showing similar levels of activity in MT+/V5 during both coherent and biological motion trials. Activity in MT+/V5 was predictive of individual coherent motion thresholds in both groups. Activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pSTS was predictive of biological motion thresholds in control participants but not in those with autism. Notably, however, activity in DLPFC was negatively related to autism symptom severity. These results suggest that impairments in higher-order social or attentional networks may underlie visual motion deficits observed in autism.
最近的证据表明，自闭症患者的视觉运动感知能力可能普遍受损。为了研究这一点，我们使用心理物理学和 fMRI 方法研究了自闭症青少年的连贯运动和生物运动处理。自闭症患者在连贯运动感知方面的表现与匹配的对照组一样好，但在生物运动感知方面的阈值明显更高。自闭症组在进行生物运动任务时，后上颞叶（pSTS）、顶叶和额叶活动减少，而在连贯和生物运动试验中，MT+/V5 的活动水平相似。两组的 MT+/V5 活动均能预测个体的连贯运动阈值。背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）和 pSTS 的活动可预测对照组参与者的生物运动阈值，但不能预测自闭症患者。然而，值得注意的是，DLPFC 的活动与自闭症症状严重程度呈负相关。这些结果表明，自闭症患者观察到的视觉运动缺陷可能与高阶社交或注意力网络的损伤有关。
