Psychiatry Investig.  2015 Jan;12(1):37-45. 10.4306/pi.2015.12.1.37.

Abnormal Activation of the Social Brain Network in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An fMRI Study

• Kim SY
• Choi US
• Park SY
• Oh SH
• Yoon HW
• Koh YJ
• Im WY
• Park JI
• Song DH
• Cheon KA
• Lee CU

• KMID: 2316387
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2015.12.1.37

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to investigate abnormal findings of social brain network in Korean children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with typically developing children (TDC).
METHODS
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed to examine brain activations during the processing of emotional faces (happy, fearful, and neutral) in 17 children with ASD, 24 TDC.
RESULTS
When emotional face stimuli were given to children with ASD, various areas of the social brain relevant to social cognition showed reduced activation. Specifically, ASD children exhibited less activation in the right amygdala (AMY), right superior temporal sulcus (STS) and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than TDC group when fearful faces were shown. Activation of left insular cortex and right IFG in response to happy faces was less in the ASD group. Similar findings were also found in left superior insular gyrus and right insula in case of neutral stimulation.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that children with ASD have different processing of social and emotional experience at the neural level. In other words, the deficit of social cognition in ASD could be explained by the deterioration of the capacity for visual analysis of emotional faces, the subsequent inner imitation through mirror neuron system (MNS), and the ability to transmit it to the limbic system and to process the transmitted emotion.

Keyword

Autism spectrum disorder; Social brain network; Social cognition; fMRI

MeSH Terms

Amygdala
Brain*
Autism Spectrum Disorder*
Child*
Cognition
Humans
Limbic System
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Mirror Neurons