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Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by an impairment in social cognition (SC). SC is a cognitive construct that refers to the capacity to process information about social situations. It is a complex network that includes distinct components. Exploring how SC components work t...

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Autores principales: Vagnetti, Roberto, Pino, Maria Chiara, Masedu, Francesco, Peretti, Sara, Le Donne, Ilenia, Rossi, Rodolfo, Valenti, Marco, Mazza, Monica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7066354/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31971664
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1524
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author Vagnetti, Roberto
Pino, Maria Chiara
Masedu, Francesco
Peretti, Sara
Le Donne, Ilenia
Rossi, Rodolfo
Valenti, Marco
Mazza, Monica
author_facet Vagnetti, Roberto
Pino, Maria Chiara
Masedu, Francesco
Peretti, Sara
Le Donne, Ilenia
Rossi, Rodolfo
Valenti, Marco
Mazza, Monica
author_sort Vagnetti, Roberto
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by an impairment in social cognition (SC). SC is a cognitive construct that refers to the capacity to process information about social situations. It is a complex network that includes distinct components. Exploring how SC components work together leads to a better understanding of how their interactions promote adequate social functioning. Our main goal was to use a novel statistical method, graph theory, to analyze SC relationships in ASD and Typically Developing (TD) individuals. METHODS: We applied graph theory to SC measures to verify how the SC components interact and to establish which of them are important within the interacting SC network for TD and ASD groups. RESULTS: The results showed that, in the TD group, the SC nodes are connected; their network showed increased betweenness among nodes, especially for the Theory of Mind. By contrast, in the SC network in the ASD group the nodes are highly disconnected, and the efficient connection among the components is absent. CONCLUSION: ASD adults do not show SC competencies and functional communication among these skills. Under this regard, specific components are crucial, suggesting they could represent critical domains for ASD SC.
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spelling pubmed-70663542020-03-18 Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis Vagnetti, Roberto Pino, Maria Chiara Masedu, Francesco Peretti, Sara Le Donne, Ilenia Rossi, Rodolfo Valenti, Marco Mazza, Monica Brain Behav Original Research BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by an impairment in social cognition (SC). SC is a cognitive construct that refers to the capacity to process information about social situations. It is a complex network that includes distinct components. Exploring how SC components work together leads to a better understanding of how their interactions promote adequate social functioning. Our main goal was to use a novel statistical method, graph theory, to analyze SC relationships in ASD and Typically Developing (TD) individuals. METHODS: We applied graph theory to SC measures to verify how the SC components interact and to establish which of them are important within the interacting SC network for TD and ASD groups. RESULTS: The results showed that, in the TD group, the SC nodes are connected; their network showed increased betweenness among nodes, especially for the Theory of Mind. By contrast, in the SC network in the ASD group the nodes are highly disconnected, and the efficient connection among the components is absent. CONCLUSION: ASD adults do not show SC competencies and functional communication among these skills. Under this regard, specific components are crucial, suggesting they could represent critical domains for ASD SC. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7066354/ /pubmed/31971664 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1524 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Vagnetti, Roberto
Pino, Maria Chiara
Masedu, Francesco
Peretti, Sara
Le Donne, Ilenia
Rossi, Rodolfo
Valenti, Marco
Mazza, Monica
Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title_full Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title_fullStr Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title_short Exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
title_sort exploring the social cognition network in young adults with autism spectrum disorder using graph analysis
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7066354/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31971664
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1524
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