Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the functional imaging associations of autism in individuals with special educational needs and demonstrate the feasibility of such research. The study included 18 individuals (3 female,15 male; mean age 24.3; mean IQ 69.7) with special educational needs (SEN), of whom 9 met criteria for autism. The task examined the Blood-oxygen-level dependant response to fearful and neutral faces. Individuals in the autism group had 2 clusters of significantly reduced activity centred on the left superior frontal gyrus and left angular gyrus compared to those with SEN alone in response to the fearful faces. In the response to neutral faces, individuals in the autism group also had a cluster of significantly greater activity centred on the right precentral gyrus compared to those with SEN alone. We suggest that autistic characteristics in individuals with SEN are associated with changes in fearful facial emotion processing analogous to those previously reported in autistic individuals without SEN, and who are of average or above average cognitive ability. The finding of enhanced response to neutral facial stimuli needs further investigation, although we speculate this may relate to reports of the experience of ‘hyper-mentalisation’ in social situations as reported by some autistic individuals.
Highlights
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a phenotype charac terised by a dyad of differences of social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities (American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Task Force, 2013)
To consider the relative effect of autistic traits on facial emotion processing, the participants were divided into two groups: those meeting the ADOS threshold for autism and those not
Clusters of significantly greater activation were found in a group of non-autistic individuals compared to an ageand IQ-matched autistic group on an functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) task examining response to fearful facial stimuli
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a phenotype charac terised by a dyad of differences of social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities (American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Task Force, 2013). It is simultaneously a relatively heterogenous phenotype including those whose autism has a known or suspected aetiology (e.g. when occurring in the context of a specific genetic condition such as fragile X syndrome), as well as those for whom no known aetiology has been identified; and a homogenous group by virtue of the individuals sharing the features requisite for a diagnosis. More broadly we would expect that given that autistic individuals share the features requisite for a diagnosis, that there might be some shared features of underlying neurobiology
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