Sato Wataru, Uono Shota, Kochiyama Takanori, Yoshimura Sayaka, Sawada Reiko, Kubota Yasutaka, Sakihama Morimitsu, Toichi Motomi
Department of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry, Habilitation and Rehabilitation, Kyoto UniversityKyoto, Japan.
Brain Activity Imaging Center, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute InternationalKyoto, Japan.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Jul 12;11:361. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00361. eCollection 2017.
Behavioral studies have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired ability to read the mind in the eyes. Although this impairment is central to their social malfunctioning, its structural neural correlates remain unclear. To investigate this issue, we assessed Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, revised version (Eyes Test) and acquired structural magnetic resonance images in adults with high-functioning ASD ( = 19) and age-, sex- and intelligence quotient-matched typically developing (TD) controls ( = 19). On the behavioral level, the Eyes Test scores were lower in the ASD group than in the control group. On the neural level, an interaction between group and Eyes Test score was found in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). A positive association between the Eyes Test score and gray matter volume of this region was evident in the control group, but not in the ASD group. This finding suggests that the failure to develop appropriate structural neural representations in the TPJ may underlie the impaired ability of individuals with ASD to read the mind in the eyes. These behavioral and neural findings provide support for the theories that impairments in processing eyes and the ability to infer others' mental states are the core symptoms of ASD, and that atypical features in the social brain network underlie such impairments.
行为研究表明，患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的个体在通过眼睛解读他人心理方面能力受损。尽管这种损伤是他们社交功能障碍的核心，但与其相关的神经结构仍不清楚。为了研究这个问题，我们评估了修订版的“通过眼睛解读心理测试”（眼睛测试），并获取了高功能自闭症成年患者（n = 19）以及年龄、性别和智商匹配的典型发育（TD）对照者（n = 19）的结构磁共振图像。在行为层面，自闭症组的眼睛测试得分低于对照组。在神经层面，在左侧颞顶联合区（TPJ）发现了组与眼睛测试得分之间的相互作用。在对照组中，该区域的眼睛测试得分与灰质体积之间存在明显的正相关，而在自闭症组中则没有。这一发现表明，颞顶联合区未能形成适当的神经结构表征可能是自闭症患者通过眼睛解读心理能力受损的原因。这些行为和神经学发现为以下理论提供了支持：处理眼睛信息和推断他人心理状态的能力受损是自闭症的核心症状，并且社交脑网络中的非典型特征是这些损伤的基础。
