Underconnectivity of the superior temporal sulcus predicts emotion recognition deficits in autism

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Date
2014-10Type
- Journal Article
Citations
Cited 72 times in
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Cited 77 times in
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Abstract
Neurodevelopmental disconnections have been assumed to cause behavioral alterations in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here, we combined measurements of intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with task-based fMRI to explore whether altered activity and/or iFC of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) mediates deficits in emotion recognition in ASD. Fifteen adults with ASD and 15 matched-controls underwent resting-state and task-based fMRI, during which participants discriminated emotional states from point light displays (PLDs). Intrinsic FC of the right pSTS was further examined using 584 (278 ASD/306 controls) resting-state data of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE). Participants with ASD were less accurate than controls in recognizing emotional states from PLDs. Analyses revealed pronounced ASD-related reductions both in task-based activity and resting-state iFC of the right pSTS with fronto-parietal areas typically encompassing the action observation network (AON). Notably, pSTS-hypo-activity was related to pSTS-hypo-connectivity, and both measures were predictive of emotion recognition performance with each measure explaining a unique part of the variance. Analyses with the large independent ABIDE dataset replicated reductions in pSTS-iFC to fronto-parietal regions. These findings provide novel evidence that pSTS hypo-activity and hypo-connectivity with the fronto-parietal AON are linked to the social deficits characteristic of ASD. Show more
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https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000077758Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Social Cognitive and Affective NeuroscienceVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Oxford University PressSubject
Autism spectrum disorders; Superior temporal sulcus; functional connectivity; functional magnetic resonance imaging; Emotion recognitionOrganisational unit
03963 - Wenderoth, Nicole / Wenderoth, Nicole
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Show all metadata
Citations
Cited 72 times in
Web of Science
Cited 77 times in
Scopus
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics