Neural correlates of calculation abilities in children with autism

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Neural correlates of calculation abilities in children with autism Teresa Iuculano1, 2*, Miriam Rosenberg-Lee2, Amirah Khouzam2, Jennifer M. Philips2, Antonio Hardan2, Lucina Q. Uddin2 and Vinod Menon2 1 University College London, United Kingdom 2 Stanford University, United States Calculation abilities were investigated in a population of high functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (HFA) (n = 10; mean age = 8.9; SD = 1.08) and an IQ, gender, and age matched group of typically developing children (TD) (n = 10; mean age = 8.5; SD = 0.94). The two groups did not differ on standardised achievement measures (reading and arithmetic) as assessed by the WIAT-II. During blocked-design fMRI scanning, children verified the validity of addition equations (e.g. 7+1 = 6). Level of difficulty was manipulated by having two types of problems: Simple, where one of the addends was equal to ‘1’ (e.g. 3+1=4), and Complex, where neither of the addends was ‘1’ (e.g. 5+3=8). The two groups showed the same level of behavioral performance in terms of accuracy and reaction times for both types of problems. Moreover, both groups activated a fronto-parietal network during calculation performance. However, TD children displayed greater engagement of frontal areas compared to children with HFA; while the latter group showed greater activation in posterior visual areas and the right hippocampus. Greater visual activation was negatively correlated with speed of responses in the calculation tasks in the HFA group, but positively correlated in the TD group. Furthermore, hippocampal activity was positively correlated with standardised measures of arithmetical abilities in children with HFA only, while accuracy performance in the calculation tasks was negatively correlated with functional activity in frontal areas. Taken together these findings reveal an atypical neural pattern of activation during arithmetic problem solving in children with HFA, and highlight the role of the hippocampus as a key brain region underlying an ‘islet of ability’ in this group. Keywords: autism, Neural Bases Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Arithmetics and Numerosity Citation: Iuculano T, Rosenberg-Lee M, Khouzam A, Philips JM, Hardan A, Uddin LQ and Menon V (2011). Neural correlates of calculation abilities in children with autism. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00101 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 16 Nov 2011; Published Online: 25 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Teresa Iuculano, University College London, London, United Kingdom, t.iuculano@ucl.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Teresa Iuculano Miriam Rosenberg-Lee Amirah Khouzam Jennifer M Philips Antonio Hardan Lucina Q Uddin Vinod Menon Google Teresa Iuculano Miriam Rosenberg-Lee Amirah Khouzam Jennifer M Philips Antonio Hardan Lucina Q Uddin Vinod Menon Google Scholar Teresa Iuculano Miriam Rosenberg-Lee Amirah Khouzam Jennifer M Philips Antonio Hardan Lucina Q Uddin Vinod Menon PubMed Teresa Iuculano Miriam Rosenberg-Lee Amirah Khouzam Jennifer M Philips Antonio Hardan Lucina Q Uddin Vinod Menon Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.