Functional disconnectivity of the medial temporal lobe in Asperger’s syndrome

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.028

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 57, Issue 9, 1 May 2005, Pages 991-998

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.028 Get rights and content

Background

Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental conditions that may be caused by abnormal connectivity between brain regions constituting neurocognitive networks for specific aspects of social cognition.

Methods

We used three-way multidimensional scaling of regionally parcellated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to explore the hypothesis of abnormal functional connectivity in people with ASD. Thirteen high-functioning individuals with Asperger’s syndrome and 13 healthy volunteers were scanned during incidental processing of fearful facial expressions.

Results

Using permutation tests for inference, we found evidence for significant abnormality of functional integration of amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus (p <.05, false discovery rate [FDR] corrected) in people with Asperger’s syndrome. There were less salient abnormalities in functional connectivity of anterior cingulate, inferior occipital, and inferior frontal cortex, but there was no significant difference between groups in whole brain functional connectivity.

Conclusions

We conclude there is evidence that functional connectivity of medial temporal lobe structures specifically is abnormal in people with Asperger’s syndrome during fearful face processing.

Section snippets

Subjects

Thirteen right-handed male adult volunteers with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome, diagnosed clinically using standard operational criteria (American Psychiatric Association 1994), and 13 healthy right-handed male adult volunteers were recruited. Participants were not currently taking prescribed or illicit psychotropic drugs and had no history of neurological or nonautistic psychiatric disorders. The two groups were not significantly different in terms of age (mean age [SD] = 31.2

Between-group differences in interregional distance matrices

Arguably, the simplest approach to identifying group differences in whole brain functional connectivity is direct inspection of the matrix of differences in interregional distances. The 90 cortical and subcortical regions under consideration yield 4005 distinct interregional distances for each group. The difference between groups for each distance, after centering of the distance matrices, is summarized in a triangular matrix (Figure 1B) that provides some preliminary evidence for abnormal

Discussion

This is the first study comprehensively to test the hypothesis that autistic spectrum disorders, specifically Asperger’s syndrome, may be associated with functional disconnectivity between brain regions. By combining a classical method of exploratory multivariate analysis (multidimensional scaling) with novel permutation methods for inference, we have been able to demonstrate a number of significant case-control differences in functional integration of specific brain regions.

The clearest

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Original articlesFunctional disconnectivity of the medial temporal lobe in Asperger’s syndrome

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Subjects

Between-group differences in interregional distance matrices

Discussion

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Neuropsychologia

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Schizophr Res

Trends Neurosci

Int J Dev Neurosci

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Cognition

Neuroimage

Neuron

Trends Cogn Sci

Trends Cogn Sci

Neurol Clin

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Impaired recognition of social emotions following amygdala damage

J Cogn Neurosci

The AmygdalaA Functional Analysis

The neurobiological basis of autism from a developmental perspective

Dev Psychopathol

DSM-IV Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The amygdala, social cognition, and autism

AutismTowards an integration of clinical, genetic, neuropsychological, and neurobiological perspectives

J Child Psychol Psychiatry

MindblindnessAn Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind

Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brainAn fMRI study

Eur J Neurosci

The autism spectrum quotient evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians

J Autism Dev Disord

Autism and abnormal development of brain connectivity

J Neurosci

The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency

Ann Statist

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Pediatr Radiol

Original articles
Functional disconnectivity of the medial temporal lobe in Asperger’s syndrome