The fusiform and amygalda in the pathobiology of autism

自闭症病理学中的梭形和杏仁核

• 批准号: 6857566
• 负责人: ROBERT Thomas SCHULTZ
• 金额: $ 32.7万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-02-25 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6857566
• 关键词: Asperger syndrome; adolescence (12-20); amygdala; autism; behavioral /social science research tag; bioimaging /biomedical imaging; brain mapping; clinical research; eye movements; face expression; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; middle childhood (6-11); neural information processing; patient oriented research; psychopathology; social perception; visual perception; visual tracking; young adult human (21-34)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Face recognition skills are an important substrate of effective social skills. Persons with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD: autism, asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) have a variety of deficits in the manner in which they recognize faces, including a reliance on individual facial features (particularly the mouth and not eyes) rather than the typical pattern of processing faces holistically. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) of face perception in ASD have shown that two brain structures - the left amygdala and the lateral aspect of the right fusiform gyrus are functionally abnormal. These findings are especially significant because they are the first brain areas to be independently confirmed by multiple labs as involved in the pathobiology of ASDs. The role of these two structures in pathobiology of ASDs is further substantiated by postmortem brain studies and gross neuroanatomical studies using conventional structural MRI. However, there remain many important questions to be answered about the parameters that modulate activity in these brain regions, both in typically developing persons and in persons with an ASD. The experiments in this R01 application are designed to extend our current knowledge in this area through a systematic series of fMRI studies. These studies make use of infra red eye tracking technology to study the relationship between scan paths and regional brain activity. These studies involve systematic manipulation of parameters that are believed to modulate level of activity in these 2 brain areas and the functional connectivity between them. In total, we propose a link series of 4 fMRI studies, each involving a comparison between 18 persons with an ASD and 18 typically developing controls (TDCs). We hypothesis that the hypoactivation of the fusiform and amygdala in ASD is mediated by (1) variation in attention and focus of perception; (2) aspects of the stimulus parameters (e.g., degree of facial emotion); and (3) interactions between the fusiform and amygdala as information comes through cortical and subcortical visual pathways.

描述（由申请人提供）：面部识别技能是有效社交技能的重要基础。患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD：自闭症、阿斯伯格综合症和未另行指定的广泛性发育障碍）的人在识别面孔的方式上存在多种缺陷，包括依赖个人面部特征（特别是嘴巴而不是眼睛）而不是整体处理面孔的典型模式。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）面部感知的功能磁共振成像研究（fMRI）表明，两个大脑结构——左侧杏仁核和右侧梭状回的侧面存在功能异常。这些发现尤其重要，因为它们是第一个被多个实验室独立证实参与自闭症谱系障碍病理学的大脑区域。死后大脑研究和使用传统结构 MRI 的大体神经解剖学研究进一步证实了这两种结构在 ASD 病理学中的作用。然而，关于调节这些大脑区域活动的参数，无论是在正常发育的人还是患有自闭症谱系障碍的人中，仍然有许多重要的问题有待回答。 R01 应用程序中的实验旨在通过一系列系统的功能磁共振成像研究扩展我们当前在该领域的知识。这些研究利用红外眼动追踪技术来研究扫描路径与区域大脑活动之间的关系。这些研究涉及对参数的系统操作，这些参数被认为可以调节这两个大脑区域的活动水平以及它们之间的功能连接。总的来说，我们提出了 4 项 fMRI 研究的链接系列，每项研究都涉及 18 名 ASD 患者和 18 名典型发育对照 (TDC) 之间的比较。我们假设自闭症谱系障碍中梭状核和杏仁核的低活性是由以下因素介导的：（1）注意力和知觉焦点的变化； (2)刺激参数的各个方面(例如面部情绪的程度)； (3)当信息通过皮质和皮质下视觉通路传递时，梭状核和杏仁核之间的相互作用。