Velasquez Francisco, Qin Xiaoyan Angela, Reilly Melissa A, Neuhaus Emily, Estes Annette, Aylward Elizabeth, Kleinhans Natalia M
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Integrative Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Integrative Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Res Dev Disabil. 2017 May;64:64-77. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.03.008. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
Atypical inhibitory function is often present in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who may have difficulty suppressing context-inappropriate behaviors. We investigated the neural correlates of inhibition in ASD in response to both emotional and non-emotional stimuli using an fMRI Go/NoGo inhibition task with human faces and letters. We also related neural activation to behavioral dysfunction in ASD. Our sample consisted of 19 individuals with ASD (mean age=25.84) and 22 typically developing (TD) control participants (mean age=29.03). As expected, no group differences in task performance (inhibition accuracy and response time) were found. However, adults with ASD exhibited greater angular gyrus activation in face response inhibition blocks, as well as greater fusiform gyrus activation than controls, in a condition comparing face inhibition to letter inhibition. In contrast, control participants yielded significantly greater anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation in letter inhibition blocks. A positive relationship between communication and language impairment and angular gyrus activation during face inhibition was also found. Group activation differences during inhibition tasks in the context of comparable task performance and the relationship between activation and dysfunction highlight brain regions that may be related to ASD-specific dysfunction.
非典型抑制功能在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体中经常存在，这些个体可能难以抑制与情境不符的行为。我们使用一项针对人脸和字母的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）“执行/不执行”抑制任务，研究了ASD个体在面对情感和非情感刺激时抑制的神经关联。我们还将神经激活与ASD中的行为功能障碍联系起来。我们的样本包括19名ASD个体（平均年龄=25.84岁）和22名发育正常（TD）的对照参与者（平均年龄=29.03岁）。正如预期的那样，未发现两组在任务表现（抑制准确性和反应时间）上存在差异。然而，在将人脸抑制与字母抑制进行比较的情况下，患有ASD的成年人在人脸反应抑制块中表现出更大的角回激活，并且梭状回激活也比对照组更大。相比之下，对照参与者在字母抑制块中前扣带回皮质（ACC）的激活明显更大。在人脸抑制过程中，还发现沟通和语言障碍与角回激活之间存在正相关。在可比任务表现的背景下，抑制任务期间的组激活差异以及激活与功能障碍之间的关系突出了可能与ASD特异性功能障碍相关的脑区。
