Language comprehension and brain function in individuals with an optimal outcome from autism

Autor: Michael C. Stevens, Marianne Barton, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Letitia R. Naigles, Robert T. Schultz, Eva Troyb, Alyssa Orinstein, Deborah Fein, Elizabeth Kelley
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Male
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism
Audiology
Brain mapping
lcsh:RC346-429
0302 clinical medicine
Neural Pathways
Young adult
10. No inequality
Child
Language
Brain Mapping
05 social sciences
fMRI
Brain
Regular Article
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
medicine.anatomical_structure
Neurology
Autism spectrum disorder
lcsh:R858-859.7
Female
Psychology
Comprehension
Parahippocampal gyrus
Sentence
Cognitive psychology
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Cognitive Neuroscience
lcsh:Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics
behavioral disciplines and activities
050105 experimental psychology
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
mental disorders
medicine
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Radiology
Nuclear Medicine and imaging

lcsh:Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
medicine.disease
Posterior cingulate
Optimal outcomes
Neurology (clinical)
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Zdroj: NeuroImage : Clinical
NeuroImage: Clinical, Vol 10, Iss C, Pp 182-191 (2016)
ISSN: 2213-1582
Popis: Although Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is generally a lifelong disability, a minority of individuals with ASD overcome their symptoms to such a degree that they are generally indistinguishable from their typically-developing peers. That is, they have achieved an Optimal Outcome (OO). The question addressed by the current study is whether this normalized behavior reflects normalized brain functioning, or alternatively, the action of compensatory systems. Either possibility is plausible, as most participants with OO received years of intensive therapy that could alter brain networks to align with typical function or work around ASD-related neural dysfunction. Individuals ages 8 to 21 years with high-functioning ASD (n = 23), OO (n = 16), or typical development (TD; n = 20) completed a functional MRI scan while performing a sentence comprehension task. Results indicated similar activations in frontal and temporal regions (left middle frontal, left supramarginal, and right superior temporal gyri) and posterior cingulate in OO and ASD groups, where both differed from the TD group. Furthermore, the OO group showed heightened “compensatory” activation in numerous left- and right-lateralized regions (left precentral/postcentral gyri, right precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, right supramarginal gyrus, left superior temporal/parahippocampal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus) and cerebellum, relative to both ASD and TD groups. Behaviorally normalized language abilities in OO individuals appear to utilize atypical brain networks, with increased recruitment of language-specific as well as right homologue and other systems. Early intensive learning and experience may normalize behavioral language performance in OO, but some brain regions involved in language processing may continue to display characteristics that are more similar to ASD than typical development, while others show characteristics not like ASD or typical development.
Highlights • fMRI study of "optimal outcome" (OO) youth with no symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. • Results show “compensatory” language activation in some areas in OO. • OO youth also had some “residual ASD” patterns of activation (OO, ASD > TD). • There was no evidence of areas of normalized brain function (OO, TD ≠ ASD). • Early treatment may normalize behavior but not brain in some individuals with ASD.
Databáze: OpenAIRE