Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions, Institut Pasteur, UMR 3571 CNRS, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France; Inria, HeKA, PariSantéCampus, Paris, France; Inserm, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France.
Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions, Institut Pasteur, UMR 3571 CNRS, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Robert Debré Hospital, APHP, Paris University, Paris, France.
Neuroimage Clin. 2023;39:103465. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103465. Epub 2023 Jun 28.
Exploring neural network dynamics during social interaction could help to identify biomarkers of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A cerebellar involvement in autism has long been suspected and recent methodological advances now enable studying cerebellar functioning in a naturalistic setting. Here, we investigated the electrophysiological activity of the cerebro-cerebellar network during real-time social interaction in ASD. We focused our analysis on theta oscillations (3-8 Hz), which have been associated with large-scale coordination of distant brain areas and might contribute to interoception, motor control, and social event anticipation, all skills known to be altered in ASD.
We combined the Human Dynamic Clamp, a paradigm for studying realistic social interactions using a virtual avatar, with high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG). Using source reconstruction, we investigated power in the cortex and the cerebellum, along with coherence between the cerebellum and three cerebral-cortical areas, and compared our findings in a sample of participants with ASD (n = 107) and with typical development (TD) (n = 33). We developed an open-source pipeline to analyse neural dynamics at the source level from HD-EEG data.
Individuals with ASD showed a significant increase in theta band power over the cerebellum and the frontal and temporal cortices during social interaction compared to resting state, along with significant coherence increases between the cerebellum and the sensorimotor, frontal and parietal cortices. However, a phase-based connectivity measure did not support a strict activity increase in the cortico-cerebellar functional network. We did not find any significant differences between the ASD and the TD group.
This exploratory study uncovered increases in the theta band activity of participants with ASD during social interaction, pointing at the presence of neural interactions between the cerebellum and cerebral networks associated with social cognition. It also emphasizes the need for complementary functional connectivity measures to capture network-level alterations. Future work will focus on optimizing artifact correction to include more participants with TD and increase the statistical power of group-level contrasts.
探索社交互动过程中的神经网络动态变化有助于确定自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的生物标志物。小脑在自闭症中的作用早已受到怀疑，最近的方法学进展现在使得在自然环境中研究小脑功能成为可能。在这里，我们研究了 ASD 患者在实时社交互动过程中脑-小脑网络的电生理活动。我们的分析重点是θ 振荡（3-8 Hz），它与远距离脑区的大范围协调有关，可能有助于内感受、运动控制和社会事件预测，所有这些技能都被认为在 ASD 中发生了改变。
我们结合了人类动态钳位，这是一种使用虚拟头像研究现实社交互动的范例，同时使用高密度脑电图 (HD-EEG)。我们通过源重建，研究了皮层和小脑的功率，以及小脑与三个大脑皮层区域之间的相干性，并将我们的发现与 ASD 患者样本（n=107）和具有典型发育的个体（n=33）进行了比较。我们开发了一个开源管道，用于从 HD-EEG 数据中对源水平的神经动力学进行分析。
与静息状态相比， ASD 患者在社交互动期间小脑和额颞叶皮层的θ 频段功率显著增加，小脑与感觉运动、额顶叶皮层之间的相干性显著增加。然而，基于相位的连通性测量并不支持皮质-小脑功能网络中严格的活动增加。我们没有发现 ASD 和 TD 组之间存在任何显著差异。
这项探索性研究揭示了 ASD 患者在社交互动过程中θ 频段活动的增加，表明小脑与与社会认知相关的大脑网络之间存在神经相互作用。它还强调了需要互补的功能连接测量来捕捉网络水平的改变。未来的工作将集中于优化伪影校正，以纳入更多具有典型发育的个体并增加组水平对比的统计效力。
