MIND Research Network, 1101 Yale Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA.
National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122051, India.
Mol Autism. 2021 Jan 21;12(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s13229-020-00377-8.
Autism is characterised not only by impaired social cognitive 'empathising' but also by superior rule-based 'systemising'. These cognitive domains intertwine within the categorical diagnosis of autism, yet behavioural genetics suggest largely independent heritability, and separable brain mechanisms. We sought to determine whether quantitative behavioural measures of autistic traits are dimensionally associated with structural and functional brain network integrity, and whether brain bases of autistic traits vary independently across individuals.
Thirty right-handed neurotypical adults (12 females) were administered psychometric (Social Responsiveness Scale, Autism Spectrum Quotient and Systemising Quotient) and behavioural (Attention Network Test and theory-of-mind reaction time) measures of autistic traits, and structurally (diffusion tensor imaging) and functionally (500 s of 2 Hz eyes-closed resting fMRI) derived graph-theoretic measures of efficiency of information integration were computed throughout the brain and within subregions.
Social impairment was positively associated with functional efficiency (r = .47, p = .006), globally and within temporo-parietal and prefrontal cortices. Delayed orienting of attention likewise was associated with greater functional efficiency (r = - .46, p = .0133). Systemising was positively associated with global structural efficiency (r = .38, p = 0.018), driven specifically by temporal pole; theory-of-mind reaction time was related to structural efficiency (r = - .40, p = 0.0153) within right supramarginal gyrus.
Interpretation of these relationships is complicated by the many senses of the term 'connectivity', including functional, structural and computational; by the approximation inherent in group functional anatomical parcellations when confronted with individual variation in functional anatomy; and by the validity, sensitivity and specificity of the several survey and experimental behavioural measures applied as correlates of brain structure and function.
Functional connectivities highlight distributed networks associated with domain-general properties such as attentional orienting and social cognition broadly, associating more impaired behaviour with more efficient brain networks that may reflect heightened feedforward information flow subserving autistic strengths and deficits alike. Structural connectivity results highlight specific anatomical nodes of convergence, reflecting cognitive and neuroanatomical independence of systemising and theory-of-mind. In addition, this work shows that individual differences in theory-of-mind related to brain structure can be measured behaviourally, and offers neuroanatomical evidence to pin down the slippery construct of 'systemising' as the capacity to construct invariant contextual associations.
自闭症的特点不仅是社交认知“同理心”受损，还有基于规则的“系统认知”能力较强。这些认知领域在自闭症的分类诊断中相互交织，但行为遗传学表明它们具有很大的独立性遗传基础，以及可分离的大脑机制。我们试图确定自闭症特征的定量行为测量是否与结构和功能大脑网络完整性有维度关联，以及自闭症特征的大脑基础是否在个体之间独立变化。
30 名右利手的神经典型成年人（12 名女性）接受了自闭症特质的心理测量（社会反应量表、自闭症谱系商数和系统商数）和行为（注意网络测试和心理理论反应时）测量，以及大脑结构（弥散张量成像）和功能（500 秒 2Hz 闭眼静息 fMRI）衍生的信息整合效率的图论测量。
社会障碍与功能效率呈正相关（r =.47，p =.006），无论是整体还是在颞顶叶和前额叶皮层内。注意的延迟定向也与更高的功能效率相关（r = -.46，p =.0133）。系统认知与整体结构效率呈正相关（r =.38，p = 0.018），这主要是由颞极驱动的；心理理论反应时间与右侧缘上回内的结构效率相关（r = -.40，p = 0.0153）。
这些关系的解释受到“连通性”的多种含义的影响，包括功能、结构和计算；当面对功能解剖的个体差异时，群组功能解剖分区所固有的近似性；以及应用于大脑结构和功能的几个调查和实验行为测量的有效性、敏感性和特异性，作为脑结构和功能的相关因素。
功能连通性突出了与注意力定向和社会认知等广泛领域的一般性属性相关的分布式网络，与更受损的行为相关的更有效的大脑网络可能反映了增强的前馈信息流，以支持自闭症的优势和缺陷。结构连通性的结果突出了特定的收敛解剖节点，反映了系统认知和心理理论的认知和神经解剖独立性。此外，这项工作表明，与大脑结构相关的心理理论的个体差异可以通过行为来测量，并提供神经解剖学证据，以确定“系统认知”这一棘手的概念，即构建不变的上下文关联的能力。
