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Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders

Abnormal eye contact is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), though little is understood of the neural bases of gaze processing in ASD. Competing hypotheses suggest that individuals with ASD avoid eye contact due to the anxiety-provoking nature of direct eye gaze or that eye-gaze cues...

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Autores principales: Davies, Mari S, Dapretto, Mirella, Sigman, Marian, Sepeta, Leigh, Bookheimer, Susan Y
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Inc 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22398976
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.6
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author Davies, Mari S
Dapretto, Mirella
Sigman, Marian
Sepeta, Leigh
Bookheimer, Susan Y
author_facet Davies, Mari S
Dapretto, Mirella
Sigman, Marian
Sepeta, Leigh
Bookheimer, Susan Y
author_sort Davies, Mari S
collection PubMed
description Abnormal eye contact is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), though little is understood of the neural bases of gaze processing in ASD. Competing hypotheses suggest that individuals with ASD avoid eye contact due to the anxiety-provoking nature of direct eye gaze or that eye-gaze cues hold less interest or significance to children with ASD. The current study examined the effects of gaze direction on neural processing of emotional faces in typically developing (TD) children and those with ASD. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 16 high-functioning children and adolescents with ASD and 16 TD controls viewed a series of faces depicting emotional expressions with either direct or averted gaze. Children in both groups showed significant activity in visual-processing regions for both direct and averted gaze trials. However, there was a significant group by gaze interaction such that only TD children showed reliably greater activity in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex for direct versus averted gaze. The ASD group showed no difference between direct and averted gaze in response to faces conveying negative emotions. These results highlight the key role of eye gaze in signaling communicative intent and suggest altered processing of the emotional significance of direct gaze in children with ASD.
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spelling pubmed-32176682011-11-21 Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders Davies, Mari S Dapretto, Mirella Sigman, Marian Sepeta, Leigh Bookheimer, Susan Y Brain Behav Original Research Abnormal eye contact is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), though little is understood of the neural bases of gaze processing in ASD. Competing hypotheses suggest that individuals with ASD avoid eye contact due to the anxiety-provoking nature of direct eye gaze or that eye-gaze cues hold less interest or significance to children with ASD. The current study examined the effects of gaze direction on neural processing of emotional faces in typically developing (TD) children and those with ASD. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 16 high-functioning children and adolescents with ASD and 16 TD controls viewed a series of faces depicting emotional expressions with either direct or averted gaze. Children in both groups showed significant activity in visual-processing regions for both direct and averted gaze trials. However, there was a significant group by gaze interaction such that only TD children showed reliably greater activity in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex for direct versus averted gaze. The ASD group showed no difference between direct and averted gaze in response to faces conveying negative emotions. These results highlight the key role of eye gaze in signaling communicative intent and suggest altered processing of the emotional significance of direct gaze in children with ASD. Blackwell Publishing Inc 2011-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3217668/ /pubmed/22398976 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.6 Text en © 2011 The Authors. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.
spellingShingle Original Research
Davies, Mari S
Dapretto, Mirella
Sigman, Marian
Sepeta, Leigh
Bookheimer, Susan Y
Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title_full Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title_fullStr Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title_full_unstemmed Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title_short Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
title_sort neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22398976
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.6
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