PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Although aversive responses to sensory stimuli are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it remains unknown whether the social relevance of aversive sensory inputs affects their processing. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural responses to mildly aversive nonsocial and social sensory stimuli as well as how sensory over-responsivity (SOR) severity relates to these responses. Participants included 21 ASD and 25 typically-developing (TD) youth, aged 8.6-18.0 years. Results showed that TD youth exhibited significant neural discrimination of socially relevant versus irrelevant aversive sensory stimuli, particularly in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), regions that are crucial for sensory and social processing. In contrast, ASD youth showed reduced neural discrimination of social versus nonsocial stimuli in the amygdala and OFC, as well as overall greater neural responses to nonsocial compared with social stimuli. Moreover, higher SOR in ASD was associated with heightened responses in sensory-motor regions to socially-relevant stimuli. These findings further our understanding of the relationship between sensory and social processing in ASD, suggesting limited attention to the social relevance compared with aversiveness level of sensory input in ASD versus TD youth, particularly in ASD youth with higher SOR.
摘要：
尽管对感觉刺激的厌恶反应在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中很常见，尚不清楚厌恶性感觉输入的社会相关性是否会影响其处理。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究对轻度厌恶的非社会和社会感觉刺激的神经反应，以及感觉过度反应（SOR）严重程度与这些反应的关系。参与者包括21名ASD和25名典型发展(TD)青年，8.6-18.0岁。结果表明，TD青年对社会相关和无关的厌恶性感官刺激表现出明显的神经歧视，特别是在杏仁核和眶额皮质（OFC），对感官和社会加工至关重要的区域。相比之下,ASD青年在杏仁核和OFC中对社会与非社会刺激的神经歧视减少，以及与社会刺激相比，对非社会的总体神经反应更大。此外，ASD中较高的SOR与感觉运动区域对社会相关刺激的反应增强相关.这些发现进一步加深了我们对ASD中感官和社会加工之间关系的理解，表明与ASD和TD青年的感觉输入的厌恶水平相比，对社会相关性的关注有限，特别是在SOR较高的ASD青年中。
