scholarly journals Effects of sensory distraction and salience priming on emotion identification in autism: an fMRI study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve Patterson ◽  
Kaitlin K. Cummings ◽  
Jiwon Jung ◽  
Nana J. Okada ◽  
Nim Tottenham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Increased Activity

Abstract Background Social interaction often occurs in noisy environments with many extraneous sensory stimuli. This is especially relevant for youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who commonly experience sensory over-responsivity (SOR) in addition to social challenges. However, the relationship between SOR and social difficulties is still poorly understood and thus rarely addressed in interventions. This study investigated the effect of auditory sensory distracters on neural processing of emotion identification in youth with ASD and the effects of increasing attention to social cues by priming participants with their own emotional faces. Methods While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 30 youth with ASD and 24 typically developing (TD) age-matched controls (ages 8–17 years) identified faces as happy or angry with and without simultaneously hearing aversive environmental noises. Halfway through the task, participants also viewed videos of their own emotional faces. The relationship between parent-rated auditory SOR and brain responses during the task was also examined. Results Despite showing comparable behavioral performance on the task, ASD and TD youth demonstrated distinct patterns of neural activity. Compared to TD, ASD youth showed greater increases in amygdala, insula, and primary sensory regions when identifying emotions with noises compared to no sounds. After viewing videos of their own emotion faces, ASD youth showed greater increases in medial prefrontal cortex activation compared to TD youth. Within ASD youth, lower SOR was associated with reduced increased activity in subcortical regions after the prime and greater increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex after the prime, particularly in trials with noises. Conclusions The results suggest that the sensory environment plays an important role in how ASD youth process social information. Additionally, we demonstrated that increasing attention to relevant social cues helps ASD youth engage frontal regions involved in higher-order social cognition, a mechanism that could be targeted in interventions. Importantly, the effect of the intervention may depend on individual differences in SOR, supporting the importance of pre-screening youth for sensory challenges prior to social interventions.

scholarly journals Effects of Sensory Distraction and Salience Priming on Emotion Identification in Autism: an fMRI Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve Patterson ◽  
Kaitlin K. Cummings ◽  
Jiwon Jung ◽  
Nana J. Okada ◽  
Nim Tottenham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Impairment ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Increased Activity

Abstract Background: Social interaction often occurs in noisy environments with many extraneous sensory stimuli. This is especially relevant for youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who commonly experience sensory over-responsivity (SOR) in addition to social impairment. However, the relationship between these symptoms is still poorly understood and thus rarely addressed in interventions. This study investigated the effect of auditory sensory distracters on neural processing of emotion identification in youth with ASD and the effects of increasing attention to social cues by priming participants with their own emotional faces.Methods: While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 30 youth with ASD and 24 typically developing (TD) age-matched controls (ages 8-17 years) identified faces as happy or angry with and without simultaneously hearing aversive environmental noises. Halfway through the task, participants also viewed videos of their own emotional faces. The relationship between parent-rated auditory SOR and brain responses during the task was also examined.Results: Despite showing comparable behavioral performance on the task, ASD and TD youth demonstrated distinct patterns of neural activity. Compared to TD, ASD youth showed greater increases in amygdala, insula and primary sensory regions when identifying emotions with noises compared to no sounds. After viewing videos of their own emotion faces, ASD youth showed greater increases in medial prefrontal cortex activation compared to TD youth. Within ASD youth, lower SOR was associated with reduced increased activity in subcortical regions after the prime and greater increased activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex after the prime, particularly in trials with noises. Conclusions: The results suggest that the sensory environment plays an important role in how ASD youth process social information. Additionally, we demonstrated that increasing attention to relevant social cues helps ASD youth engage frontal regions involved in higher-order social cognition, a mechanism that could be targeted in interventions. Importantly, the effect of the intervention may depend on individual differences in SOR, supporting the importance of pre-screening youth for sensory challenges prior to social interventions.

scholarly journals Effects of Sensory Distraction and Salience Priming on Emotion Identification in Autism: An fmri Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve Patterson ◽  
Kaitlin K. Cummings ◽  
Jiwon Jung ◽  
Nana J. Okada ◽  
Nim Tottenham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Impairment ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
Subcortical Regions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Increased Activity

Abstract BackgroundSocial interaction often occurs in noisy environments with many extraneous sensory stimuli. This is especially relevant for youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who commonly experience sensory over-responsivity (SOR) in addition to social impairment. However, the relationship between these symptoms is still poorly understood and thus rarely addressed in interventions. This study investigated the effect of auditory sensory distracters on neural processing of emotion identification in youth with ASD and the effects of increasing attention to social cues by priming participants with their own emotional faces.MethodsWhile undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 30 youth with ASD and 24 typically developing (TD) age-matched controls (ages 8-17 years) identified faces as happy or angry with and without simultaneously hearing aversive environmental noises. Halfway through the task, participants also viewed videos of their own emotional faces. The relationship between parent-rated auditory SOR and brain responses during the task was also examined.ResultsDespite showing comparable behavioral performance on the task, ASD and TD youth demonstrated distinct patterns of neural activity. Compared to TD, ASD youth showed greater increases in amygdala, insula and primary sensory regions when identifying emotions with noises compared to no sounds. After viewing videos of their own emotion faces, ASD youth showed greater increases in medial prefrontal cortex activation compared to TD youth. Within ASD youth, lower SOR was associated with reduced increased activity in subcortical regions after the prime and greater increased activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex after the prime, particularly in trials with noises. ConclusionsThe results suggest that the sensory environment plays an important role in how ASD youth process social information. Additionally, we demonstrated that increasing attention to relevant social cues helps ASD youth engage frontal regions involved in higher-order social cognition, a mechanism that could be targeted in interventions. Importantly, the effect of the intervention may depend on individual differences in SOR, supporting the importance of pre-screening youth for sensory challenges prior to social interventions.

scholarly journals GAP REDUCE. A research and development project to promote quality of urban life of adult people with autism spectrum disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Congiu ◽  
F Lubrano ◽  
V Talu ◽  
G Tola
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background Sensory peculiarities of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) significantly affect their lives, making the relationship with the environment difficult to face. Many authors, referring to the urban environment, report that rather more stimuli required to be processed and orientation and navigation are challenging skills at different scales. The growing incidence and prevalence of the disorder and the need to guarantee during adulthood the actual opportunity to exercise the level of autonomy achieved during youth, emphasize the necessity to 'broaden' the research perspective by investigating also how the shape and the organization of the urban environment affect the quality of life of this group of inhabitants. GAP REDUCE is a R&D project aiming at developing a tool to provide support to adult and high-functioning people with ASD to plan, easily and in advance, an urban itinerary towards daily destinations. After the development of a cognitive framework on the relationship between built environment and autism, a survey involving different experts has been conducted to identify the relevant urban spatial features to calculate the most suitable path (in terms of sensory stimuli, accessibility and orientation). A neighbourhood in Sassari (Italy) was selected as pilot study area to test the tool. Results The identified urban features were classified into positive and negative points of interest, acting as spatial facilitators or obstacles respectively, and evaluated on the basis on a set of indicators according to their impact on the possibility for the user to reach the selected destination. Conclusions GAP REDUCE is an innovative tool that leverages on spatial facilitator to make the urban environment more accessible, inclusive and healthy to people with ASD. Indeed, this principle and tool can be also applied to other groups of inhabitants (elderly, people with dementia, people with other sensory disabilities).

scholarly journals Key role of soluble epoxide hydrolase in the neurodevelopmental disorders of offspring after maternal immune activation

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (14) ◽  
pp. 7083-7088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Ma ◽  
Qian Ren ◽  
Jun Yang ◽  
Kai Zhang ◽  
Zhongwei Xiong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Immune Activation ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Epoxide Hydrolase ◽  
Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Postmortem Brain ◽  
Maternal Immune Activation ◽  
Increased Activity

Maternal infection during pregnancy increases risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. In rodents, maternal immune activation (MIA) yields offspring with schizophrenia- and ASD-like behavioral abnormalities. Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) plays a key role in inflammation associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Here we found higher levels of sEH in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of juvenile offspring after MIA. Oxylipin analysis showed decreased levels of epoxy fatty acids in the PFC of juvenile offspring after MIA, supporting increased activity of sEH in the PFC of juvenile offspring. Furthermore, expression of sEH (orEPHX2) mRNA in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurospheres from schizophrenia patients with the 22q11.2 deletion was higher than that of healthy controls. Moreover, the expression ofEPHX2mRNA in postmortem brain samples (Brodmann area 9 and 40) from ASD patients was higher than that of controls. Treatment with 1-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-3-(1-propionylpiperidin-4-yl)urea (TPPU), a potent sEH inhibitor, in juvenile offspring from prenatal day (P) 28 to P56 could prevent cognitive deficits and loss of parvalbumin (PV) immunoreactivity in the medial PFC of adult offspring after MIA. In addition, dosing of TPPU to pregnant mothers from E5 to P21 could prevent cognitive deficits, and social interaction deficits and PV immunoreactivity in the medial prefrontal cortex of juvenile offspring after MIA. These findings suggest that increased activity of sEH in the PFC plays a key role in the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring after MIA. Therefore, sEH represents a promising prophylactic or therapeutic target for neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring after MIA.

scholarly journals Altered Relationship Between Parvalbumin and Perineuronal Nets in an Autism Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Xia ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Binrang Yang ◽  
Qiang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Valproic Acid ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Inhibitory Neurons ◽  
Perineuronal Nets ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Reduced Density ◽  
The Relationship

Altered function or presence of inhibitory neurons is documented in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the mechanism underlying this alternation is poorly understood. One major subtype of inhibitory neurons altered is the parvalbumin (PV)-containing neurons with reduced density and intensity in ASD patients and model mice. A subpopulation of PV+ neurons expresses perineuronal nets (PNN). To better understand whether the relationship between PV and PNN is altered in ASD, we measured quantitatively the intensities of PV and PNN in single PV+ neurons in the prelimbic prefrontal cortex (PrL-PFC) of a valproic acid (VPA) model of ASD at different ages. We found a decreased PV intensity but increased PNN intensity in VPA mice. The relationship between PV and PNN intensities is altered in VPA mice, likely due to an “abnormal” subpopulation of neurons with an altered PV-PNN relationship. Furthermore, reducing PNN level using in vivo injection of chondroitinase ABC corrects the PV expression in adult VPA mice. We suggest that the interaction between PV and PNN is disrupted in PV+ neurons in VPA mice which may contribute to the pathology in ASD.

scholarly journals Fecal Microbiome Transplantation from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Modulates Tryptophan and Serotonergic Synapse Metabolism and Induces Altered Behaviors in Germ-Free Mice

mSystems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Xiao ◽  
Junyan Yan ◽  
Ting Yang ◽  
Jiang Zhu ◽  
Tingyu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Serotonin Metabolism ◽  
Fecal Microbiome ◽  
Expression Levels ◽  
Germ Free ◽  
Microbial Community Structures ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT To determine the relationship of the gut microbiota and its metabolites with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like behaviors and preliminarily explore the potential molecular mechanisms, the fecal microbiota from donors with ASD and typically developing (TD) donors were transferred into germ-free (GF) mice to obtain ASD-FMT mice and TD-FMT mice, respectively. Behavioral tests were conducted on these mice after 3 weeks. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the cecal contents and untargeted metabolomic analysis of the cecum, serum, and prefrontal cortex were performed. Untargeted metabolomics was also used to analyze fecal samples of TD and ASD children. Western blotting detected the protein expression levels of tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1), serotonin transporter (SERT), and serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT1AR) in the colon and TPH2, SERT, and 5-HT1AR in the prefrontal cortex of mice. ASD-FMT mice showed ASD-like behavior and a microbial community structure different from that of TD-FMT mice. Tryptophan and serotonin metabolisms were altered in both ASD and TD children and ASD-FMT and TD-FMT mice. Some microbiota may be related to tryptophan and serotonin metabolism. Compared with TD-FMT mice, ASD-FMT mice showed low SERT and 5-HT1AR and high TPH1 expression levels in the colon. In the prefrontal cortex, the expression levels of TPH2 and SERT were increased in the ASD-FMT group relative to the TD-FMT group. Therefore, the fecal microbiome of ASD children can lead to ASD-like behaviors, different microbial community structures, and altered tryptophan and serotonin metabolism in GF mice. These changes may be related to changes in some key proteins involved in the synthesis and transport of serotonin. IMPORTANCE The relationship between the gut microbiota and ASD is not yet fully understood. Numerous studies have focused on the differences in intestinal microbial and metabolism profiles between TD and ASD children. However, it is still not clear if these microbes and metabolites cause the development of ASD symptoms. Here, we collected fecal samples from TD and ASD children, transplanted them into GF mice, and found that the fecal microbiome of ASD children can lead to ASD-like behaviors, different microbial community structures, and altered tryptophan and serotonin metabolism in GF mice. We also demonstrated that tryptophan and serotonin metabolism was also altered in ASD and TD children. Together, these findings confirm that the microbiome from children with ASD may lead to ASD-like behavior of GF mice through metabolites, especially tryptophan and serotonin metabolism.

scholarly journals Neural Mechanisms of Qigong Sensory Training Massage for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 216495611876900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin K Jerger ◽  
Laura Lundegard ◽  
Aaron Piepmeier ◽  
Keturah Faurot ◽  
Amanda Ruffino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Cerebral Oximetry ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Parasympathetic Tone ◽  
Sensory Training

Objectives Despite the enormous prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), its global impact has yet to be realized. Millions of families worldwide need effective treatments to help them get through everyday challenges like eating, sleeping, digestion, and social interaction. Qigong Sensory Training (QST) is a nonverbal, parent-delivered intervention recently shown to be effective at reducing these everyday challenges in children with ASD. This study tested the feasibility of a protocol for investigating QST’s neural mechanism. Methods During a single visit, 20 children, 4- to 7-year-old, with ASD viewed images of emotional faces before and after receiving QST or watching a video (controls). Heart rate variability was recorded throughout the visit, and power in the high frequency band (0.15–0.4 Hz) was calculated to estimate parasympathetic tone in 5-s nonoverlapping windows. Cerebral oximetry of prefrontal cortex was recorded during rest and while viewing emotional faces. Results 95% completion rate and 7.6% missing data met a priori standards confirming protocol feasibility for future studies. Preliminary data suggest: (1) during the intervention, parasympathetic tone increased more in children receiving massage (M = 2.9, SD = 0.3) versus controls (M = 2.5, SD = 0.5); (2) while viewing emotional faces post-intervention, parasympathetic tone was more affected (reduced) in the massage group ( p = 0.036); and (3) prefrontal cortex response to emotional faces was greater after massage compared to controls. These results did not reach statistical significance in this small study powered to test feasibility. Discussion/Conclusion This study demonstrates solid protocol feasibility. If replicated in a larger sample, these findings would provide important clues to the neural mechanism of action underlying QST’s efficacy for improving sensory, social, and communication difficulties in children with autism.

Importance of Attention in Sensory Processing and Social Functioning in Young Adults With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 7512505180p1-7512505180p1
Author(s):  
Jewel Elias Crasta ◽  
Patricia Davies ◽  
William J. Gavin
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Attention Skills ◽  
Modeling Analysis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Primary Author

Abstract Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. Statistical modeling analysis reveal that attention skills mediate the relationship between brain measures of sensory processing (measured by electroencephalography) and behavioral sensory processing in young adults with and without autism. Thus, attention abilities facilitate brain mechanisms to better process sensory stimuli to perform everyday sensory processing activities and social skills. Results suggest that therapy emphasizing attention skills in autism can modify sensory and social participation. Primary Author and Speaker: Jewel Elias Crasta Additional Authors and Speakers: Patricia Davies Contributing Authors: William J. Gavin

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document