Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University and the Alfred, Melbourne, Australia.
Biol Psychiatry. 2012 Mar 1;71(5):427-33. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.09.001. Epub 2011 Oct 5.
The neurobiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not particularly well understood, and biomedical treatment approaches are therefore extremely limited. A prominent explanatory model suggests that social-relating symptoms may arise from dysfunction within the mirror neuron system, while a recent neuroimaging study suggests that these impairments in ASD might reduce with age.
Participants with autism spectrum disorder (i.e., DSM-IV autistic disorder or Asperger's disorder) (n = 34) and matched control subjects (n = 36) completed a transcranial magnetic stimulation study in which corticospinal excitability was assessed during the observation of hand gestures.
Regression analyses revealed that the ASD group presented with significantly reduced corticospinal excitability during the observation of a transitive hand gesture (relative to observation of a static hand) (p < .05), which indicates reduced putative mirror neuron system activity within ventral premotor cortex/inferior frontal gyrus. Among the ASD group, there was also a negative association between putative mirror neuron activity and self-reported social-relating impairments, but there was no indication that mirror neuron impairments in ASD decrease with age.
These data provide general support for the mirror neuron hypothesis of autism; researchers now must clarify the precise functional significance of mirror neurons to truly understand their role in the neuropathophysiology of ASD and to determine whether they should be used as targets for the treatment of ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的神经生物学尚未得到充分理解，因此生物医学治疗方法极其有限。一个突出的解释模型表明，社交相关症状可能源于镜像神经元系统的功能障碍，而最近的一项神经影像学研究表明，ASD 患者的这些损伤可能会随着年龄的增长而减轻。
自闭症谱系障碍（即 DSM-IV 自闭症或阿斯伯格综合征）患者（n = 34）和匹配的对照组受试者（n = 36）完成了一项经颅磁刺激研究，在此研究中评估了手动作观察过程中的皮质脊髓兴奋性。
回归分析显示，ASD 组在手动作传递（相对于静态手）观察过程中皮质脊髓兴奋性显著降低（p <.05），这表明腹侧运动前皮质/下额回中的假定镜像神经元系统活动减少。在 ASD 组中，假定的镜像神经元活动与自我报告的社交相关障碍之间也存在负相关，但没有迹象表明 ASD 中的镜像神经元损伤会随年龄而减轻。
这些数据为自闭症的镜像神经元假说提供了普遍支持；研究人员现在必须阐明镜像神经元的确切功能意义，以真正理解它们在 ASD 神经病理学中的作用，并确定它们是否应作为 ASD 治疗的靶点。
