Neural Basis of Self and Other Representation in Autism: An fMRI Study of Self-Face Recognition

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by decreased interest and engagement in social interactions and by enhanced self-focus. While previous theoretical approaches to understanding autism have emphasized social impairments and altered interpersonal interactions, there is a recent shift towards understanding the nature of the representation of the self in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Still, the neural mechanisms subserving self-representations in ASD are relatively unexplored.We used event-related fMRI to investigate brain responsiveness to images of the subjects' own face and to faces of others. Children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children viewed randomly presented digital morphs between their own face and a gender-matched other face, and made "self/other" judgments. Both groups of children activated a right premotor/prefrontal system when identifying images containing a greater percentage of the self face. However, while TD children showed activation of this system during both self- and other-processing, children with ASD only recruited this system while viewing images containing mostly their own face.This functional dissociation between the representation of self versus others points to a potential neural substrate for the characteristic self-focus and decreased social understanding exhibited by these individuals, and suggests that individuals with ASD lack the shared neural representations for self and others that TD children and adults possess and may use to understand others

A Family History Study of Asperger Syndrome

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a childhood-onset disorder often described as a mild variant of autism. Although classified as a distinct disorder in the DSM-IV, its overlap with autism continues to be a matter of ongoing debate. While the family genetic origins of autism are well established, few studies have investigated this topic in AS using current operational criteria. In this report, we examined the family psychiatric history of 58 subjects with AS diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria (48 males; mean age 13.34; mean full scale IQ 104.87). All subjects had a history of mild autistic social deficits; focused special interests; normal level of intelligence; and an odd and often pedantic manner of speaking. None had a previous diagnosis of autism. Of the 58 subjects with Asperger syndrome, three had first degree relatives with AS; nine (15%) had a family history of schizophrenia; and 35 (60%) had a family history of depression. Of the 64 siblings, four had a diagnosis of AS and none of autism. Compared with a group of 39 subjects with normal intelligence autism (high functioning autism, HFA; 33 males; mean age 15.34; mean full scale IQ 85.89) subjects with AS were more likely to have relatives with depression; schizophrenia; and the broader autistic phenotype. Possible reasons for and implications of these findings are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44625/1/10803_2004_Article_1996.pd