Neural basis of self and other representation in autism: an FMRI study of self-face recognition

Lucina Q Uddin, Mari S Davies, Ashley A Scott, Eran Zaidel, Susan Y Bookheimer, Marco Iacoboni, Mirella Dapretto, Lucina Q Uddin, Mari S Davies, Ashley A Scott, Eran Zaidel, Susan Y Bookheimer, Marco Iacoboni, Mirella Dapretto

Abstract

Background: Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by decreased interest and engagement in social interactions and by enhanced self-focus. While previous theoretical approaches to understanding autism have emphasized social impairments and altered interpersonal interactions, there is a recent shift towards understanding the nature of the representation of the self in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Still, the neural mechanisms subserving self-representations in ASD are relatively unexplored.

Methodology/principal findings: We used event-related fMRI to investigate brain responsiveness to images of the subjects' own face and to faces of others. Children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children viewed randomly presented digital morphs between their own face and a gender-matched other face, and made "self/other" judgments. Both groups of children activated a right premotor/prefrontal system when identifying images containing a greater percentage of the self face. However, while TD children showed activation of this system during both self- and other-processing, children with ASD only recruited this system while viewing images containing mostly their own face.

Conclusions/significance: This functional dissociation between the representation of self versus others points to a potential neural substrate for the characteristic self-focus and decreased social understanding exhibited by these individuals, and suggests that individuals with ASD lack the shared neural representations for self and others that TD children and adults possess and may use to understand others.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1. Examples of types of stimuli…
Figure 1. Examples of types of stimuli used in the experiment.
For each participant, a series of morphed images were created between the participant's own face and another gender-matched face. This resulted in six face images, from 0% morphing (Self) to 100% morphing (Other).
Figure 2
Figure 2
a: Behavioral responses to the task. Both groups of children (ASD and TD) showed decreasing “self” responses as the image presented contained less of the self-face, demonstrating behavioral competence. Error bars represent standard error. b: Reaction Time. There were no significant differences between groups with respect to reaction time.
Figure 3. While both groups of children…
Figure 3. While both groups of children activated the right IFG while viewing of faces of themselves, only TD children also activated this region while viewing faces of others.
Figure 4. TD children showed greater activation…
Figure 4. TD children showed greater activation to other faces than children with ASD, specifically in the right IFG region-of-interest.
Figure 5. ROIs based on Harvard-Oxford atlas…
Figure 5. ROIs based on Harvard-Oxford atlas used to probe differences between TD and ASD groups.
Figure 6. ROI analyses indicated hypoactivation to…
Figure 6. ROI analyses indicated hypoactivation to Other faces in the ASD group in BA 44 and BA 45.

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