Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate poor social functioning, which may be related to atypical emotional face processing. Altered functional connectivity among brain regions, particularly involving limbic structures may be implicated. The current magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated whole-brain functional connectivity of eight a priori identified brain regions during the implicit presentation of happy and angry faces in 20 7 to 10-year-old children with ASD and 22 typically developing controls. Findings revealed a network of increased alpha-band phase synchronization during the first 400 ms of happy face processing in children with ASD compared to controls. This network of increased alpha-band phase synchronization involved the left fusiform gyrus, right insula, and frontal regions critical for emotional face processing. In addition, greater connectivity strength of the left fusiform gyrus (maximal 85 to 208 ms) and right insula (maximal 73 to 270 ms) following happy face presentation in children with ASD compared to typically developing controls was found. These findings reflect altered neuronal communication in children with ASD only to happy faces during implicit emotional face processing.
Highlights
An understanding of emotional information from faces is critical for successful social interaction
Using MEG, the current study examined whole-brain functional connectivity of eight a priori regions of interest (ROIs) during implicit emotional face processing in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typical controls
No between-group differences at the behavioral level is not surprising since the task was implicit and undemanding, which assures that the group differences in functional connectivity cannot be attributable to poorer task performance by the children with ASD
Summary
An understanding of emotional information from faces is critical for successful social interaction. Individuals with ASD show reduced activation of the primary visual cortex and extrastriate areas, the fusiform (Critchley et al, 2000; Hubl et al, 2003; Piggot et al, 2004; Wang et al, 2004; Deeley et al, 2007; Pelphrey et al, 2007), middle temporal (Critchley et al, 2000), and posterior superior temporal gyri (Pelphrey et al, 2005, 2007) in response to Functional Connectivity in Children With ASD emotional faces. The insulae and ACC are key nodes of the salience network, which is pertinent in the evaluation of one’s own and others’ emotional states, emotional judgment and empathy (Di Martino et al, 2009; Uddin and Menon, 2009; Menon and Uddin, 2010)
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