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Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism

Individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) are known to excel in some perceptual cognitive tasks, but such developed functions have been often regarded as “islets of abilities” that do not significantly contribute to broader intellectual capacities. However, recent behavioral studies have repo...

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Autores principales: Yamada, Takashi, Ohta, Haruhisa, Watanabe, Hiromi, Kanai, Chieko, Tani, Masayuki, Ohno, Taisei, Takayama, Yuko, Iwanami, Akira, Kato, Nobumasa, Hashimoto, Ryuichiro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422311/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22912831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043220
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author Yamada, Takashi
Ohta, Haruhisa
Watanabe, Hiromi
Kanai, Chieko
Tani, Masayuki
Ohno, Taisei
Takayama, Yuko
Iwanami, Akira
Kato, Nobumasa
Hashimoto, Ryuichiro
author_facet Yamada, Takashi
Ohta, Haruhisa
Watanabe, Hiromi
Kanai, Chieko
Tani, Masayuki
Ohno, Taisei
Takayama, Yuko
Iwanami, Akira
Kato, Nobumasa
Hashimoto, Ryuichiro
author_sort Yamada, Takashi
collection PubMed
description Individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) are known to excel in some perceptual cognitive tasks, but such developed functions have been often regarded as “islets of abilities” that do not significantly contribute to broader intellectual capacities. However, recent behavioral studies have reported that individuals with ASC have advantages for performing Raven's (Standard) Progressive Matrices (RPM/RSPM), a standard neuropsychological test for general fluid intelligence, raising the possibility that ASC′s cognitive strength can be utilized for more general purposes like novel problem solving. Here, the brain activity of 25 adults with high-functioning ASC and 26 matched normal controls (NC) was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural substrates of geometric reasoning during the engagement of a modified version of the RSPM test. Among the frontal and parietal brain regions involved in fluid intelligence, ASC showed larger activation in the left lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) during an analytic condition with moderate difficulty than NC. Activation in the left LOTC and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) increased with task difficulty in NC, whereas such modulation of activity was absent in ASC. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis revealed a significant reduction of activation coupling between the left inferior parietal cortex and the right anterior prefrontal cortex during both figural and analytic conditions in ASC. These results indicate altered pattern of functional specialization and integration in the neural system for geometric reasoning in ASC, which may explain its atypical cognitive pattern, including performance on the Raven's Matrices test.
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spelling pubmed-34223112012-08-21 Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism Yamada, Takashi Ohta, Haruhisa Watanabe, Hiromi Kanai, Chieko Tani, Masayuki Ohno, Taisei Takayama, Yuko Iwanami, Akira Kato, Nobumasa Hashimoto, Ryuichiro PLoS One Research Article Individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) are known to excel in some perceptual cognitive tasks, but such developed functions have been often regarded as “islets of abilities” that do not significantly contribute to broader intellectual capacities. However, recent behavioral studies have reported that individuals with ASC have advantages for performing Raven's (Standard) Progressive Matrices (RPM/RSPM), a standard neuropsychological test for general fluid intelligence, raising the possibility that ASC′s cognitive strength can be utilized for more general purposes like novel problem solving. Here, the brain activity of 25 adults with high-functioning ASC and 26 matched normal controls (NC) was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural substrates of geometric reasoning during the engagement of a modified version of the RSPM test. Among the frontal and parietal brain regions involved in fluid intelligence, ASC showed larger activation in the left lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) during an analytic condition with moderate difficulty than NC. Activation in the left LOTC and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) increased with task difficulty in NC, whereas such modulation of activity was absent in ASC. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis revealed a significant reduction of activation coupling between the left inferior parietal cortex and the right anterior prefrontal cortex during both figural and analytic conditions in ASC. These results indicate altered pattern of functional specialization and integration in the neural system for geometric reasoning in ASC, which may explain its atypical cognitive pattern, including performance on the Raven's Matrices test. Public Library of Science 2012-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3422311/ /pubmed/22912831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043220 Text en © 2012 Yamada et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yamada, Takashi
Ohta, Haruhisa
Watanabe, Hiromi
Kanai, Chieko
Tani, Masayuki
Ohno, Taisei
Takayama, Yuko
Iwanami, Akira
Kato, Nobumasa
Hashimoto, Ryuichiro
Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title_full Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title_fullStr Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title_full_unstemmed Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title_short Functional Alterations in Neural Substrates of Geometric Reasoning in Adults with High-Functioning Autism
title_sort functional alterations in neural substrates of geometric reasoning in adults with high-functioning autism
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422311/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22912831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043220
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