Jd Cohen, T Smith, K Thompson, A Collins, Ta Knaus, H Tager-Flusberg
Department of Psychology, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Ann Behav Neurosci. 2018;1(1):24-35. doi: 10.18314/abne.v1i1.1120. Epub 2018 Jun 13.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is hallmarked by social-emotional reciprocity deficits. Social-emotional responding requires the clear recognition of social cues as well as the internal monitoring of emotional salience. Insular cortex is central to the salience network, and plays a key role in approach-avoidance emotional valuation. Consistent right anterior insular hypoactivity and variable volumetric differences of insular cortical volumes were shown previously. The current study analyzed anterior and posterior insular volume/asymmetry changes in ASD across age. Age was used as an additional grouping variable as previous studies indicated differential regional volume in ASD individuals before and after puberty onset. In the current sample, pre-teen ASD expressed left lateralized anterior insula, while adolescent ASD had right lateralization. Typically developing (TD) individuals expressed the opposite lateralization of anterior insula in both age-groups (right greater than left anterior insular volume among pre-teen TD and left greater than right anterior insular volume among adolescent TD). Social-emotional calibrated severity scores from the ADOS were positively correlated with leftward anterior insular asymmetry and negatively correlated with proportional right anterior insular volumes in ASD. Insular cortex has a lateralized role in autonomic nervous system regulation (parasympathetic control in the left, sympathetic control in the right). Atypical insular asymmetry in ASD may contribute to the development of networks with a diminished salience signal to human faces and voices, and may lead to more learned passive avoidant responses to such stimuli at younger ages, leading to more distressed responses in adolescence. Data here supports the use of early behavioral intervention to increase awareness of and reward for social-emotional cues.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是社交情感互惠缺陷。社交情感反应需要清晰识别社交线索以及对情感显著性的内部监测。脑岛皮质是显著性网络的核心，在趋近-回避情感评估中起关键作用。先前已显示右侧前脑岛活动减退以及脑岛皮质体积存在可变的体积差异。本研究分析了ASD患者不同年龄段前脑岛和后脑岛的体积/不对称性变化。由于先前研究表明青春期前后ASD个体的区域体积存在差异，因此将年龄作为一个额外的分组变量。在当前样本中，青少年前期的ASD患者表现为左侧化的前脑岛，而青少年期的ASD患者则表现为右侧化。在两个年龄组中，典型发育（TD）个体前脑岛的侧化情况相反（青少年前期TD个体中右侧前脑岛体积大于左侧，青少年期TD个体中左侧前脑岛体积大于右侧）。来自ADOS的社交情感校准严重程度评分与左侧前脑岛不对称性呈正相关，与ASD患者右侧前脑岛体积比例呈负相关。脑岛皮质在自主神经系统调节中具有侧化作用（左侧为副交感神经控制，右侧为交感神经控制）。ASD患者不典型的脑岛不对称性可能导致对人脸和声音的显著性信号减弱的网络发展，并可能导致在较年轻时对这类刺激更多地习得被动回避反应，从而在青春期产生更多苦恼反应。此处的数据支持使用早期行为干预来提高对社交情感线索的意识并给予奖励。
