School of Human Health Science, Kyoto University, 53 Kawaharacho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
Res Dev Disabil. 2012 Mar-Apr;33(2):518-24. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2011.10.016. Epub 2011 Nov 24.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can demonstrate hypersensitivity to sounds as well as a lack of awareness of them. Several functional imaging studies have suggested an abnormal response in the auditory cortex of such subjects, but it is not known whether these subjects have dysfunction in the auditory cortex or are simply not listening. We measured changes in blood oxygenated hemoglobin (OxyHb) in the prefrontal and temporal cortices using near-infrared spectroscopy during various listening and ignoring tasks in 11 ASD and 12 control subjects. Here we show that the auditory cortex in ASD subjects responds to sounds fully during attention. OxyHb in the auditory cortex increased with intentional listening but not with ignoring of the same auditory stimulus in a similar fashion in both groups. Cortical responses differed not in the auditory but in the prefrontal region between the ASD and control groups. Thus, unawareness to sounds in ASD could be interpreted as due to inattention rather than dysfunction of the auditory cortex. Difficulties in attention control may account for the contrary behaviors of hypersensitivity and unawareness to sound in ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者可能表现出对声音的过度敏感以及对声音缺乏意识。几项功能成像研究表明，这些受试者的听觉皮层存在异常反应，但尚不清楚这些受试者的听觉皮层是否存在功能障碍，还是只是不听。我们使用近红外光谱技术，在 11 名 ASD 患者和 12 名对照组受试者进行各种听和忽略任务时，测量了前额叶和颞叶皮质中的血氧血红蛋白（OxyHb）变化。在这里，我们表明 ASD 患者的听觉皮层在注意力集中时对声音有充分的反应。两组中，听觉皮层的 OxyHb 在有意倾听时增加，但在以类似方式忽略相同听觉刺激时不增加。皮质反应的差异不在听觉区域，而在前额叶区域。因此，ASD 患者对声音的无意识可以解释为注意力不集中，而不是听觉皮层的功能障碍。注意力控制困难可能解释了 ASD 中对声音过度敏感和无意识的相反行为。
