An Abnormal Cerebellar Network in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Morphometric Study

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by poor social abilities, communication deficiency and restricted behavioural patterns. Recently, scholars started to consider the possibility of detecting biological markers for better and faster diagnosing autism. This problem has been approached from different perspectives considering biochemical, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomical markers. Following this perspective, our intent was to investigate whether a structural brain signature of autism can be detected in children by using a whole brain morphological analysis. To this aim, we selected 43 male children with autistic spectrum disorder and 46 male controls, matched for age. Structural brain images (T1 image), intelligence scores (Full IQ, Verbal IQ, Performance IQ), and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores were considered for analyses. Source-Based Morphometry, a multivariate method based on Independent Component Analysis to detect maximally independent cortical networks of gray matter differences was applied to autistic and control brains. Results showed a statistically different network between ASD children and controls, including several cerebellar regions (Inferior Semi-lunar lobule, Tuble, Uvula, Pyramis, Declive, Cerebellar Tonsil) and the Fusiform Gyrus, confirming, but, also expanding previous results. In addition, separate temporal, frontal, and parietal networks were found to be significantly correlated with the Stereotyped Behaviour ADOS scores. These morphologic differences may be particularly useful in paving the way for future objective methods to diagnose autism

Mindful emotion regulation: exploring the neurocognitive mechanisms behind mindfulness

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the psychological and neural mechanisms behind mindfulness practice in order to explore the unique factors that account for its positive impact on emotional regulation and health. After reviewing the mechanisms of mindfulness and its effects on clinical populations we will consider how the practice of mindfulness contributes to the regulation of emotions. We argue that mindfulness has achieved effective outcomes in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and other psychopathologies through the contribution of mindfulness to emotional regulation. We consider the unique factors that mindfulness meditation brings to the process of emotion regulation that may account for its effectiveness. We review experimental evidence that points towards the unique effects of mindfulness specifically operating over and above the regulatory effects of cognitive reappraisal mechanisms. A neuroanatomical circuit that leads to mindful emotion regulation is also suggested. This paper thereby aims to contribute to proposed models of mindfulness for research and theory building by proposing a specific model for the unique psychological and neural processes involved in mindful detachment that account for the effects of mindfulness over and above the effects accounted for by other well-established emotional regulation processes such as cognitive reappraisal

Uncovering the Social Deficits in the Autistic Brain. A Source-Based Morphometric Study

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that mainly affects social interaction and communication. Evidence from behavioral and functional MRI studies supports the hypothesis that dysfunctional mechanisms involving social brain structures play a major role in autistic symptomatology. However, the investigation of anatomical abnormalities in the brain of people with autism has led to inconsistent results. We investigated whether specific brain regions, known to display functional abnormalities in autism, may exhibit mutual and peculiar patterns of covariance in their gray-matter concentrations. We analyzed structural MRI images of 32 young men affected by autistic disorder (AD) and 50 healthy controls. Controls were matched for sex, age, handedness. IQ scores were also monitored to avoid confounding. A multivariate Source-Based Morphometry (SBM) was applied for the first time on AD and controls to detect maximally independent networks of gray matter. Group comparison revealed a gray-matter source that showed differences in AD compared to controls. This network includes broad temporal regions involved in social cognition and high-level visual processing, but also motor and executive areas of the frontal lobe. Notably, we found that gray matter differences, as reflected by SBM, significantly correlated with social and behavioral deficits displayed by AD individuals and encoded via the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores. These findings provide support for current hypotheses about the neural basis of atypical social and mental states information processing in autism

Evidence for the triadic model of adolescent brain development : cognitive load and task-relevance of emotion differentially affect adolescents and adults

In adults, cognitive control is supported by several brain regions including the limbic system and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) when processing emotional information. However, in adolescents, some theories hypothesize a neurobiological imbalance proposing heightened sensitivity to affective material in the amygdala and striatum within a cognitive control context. Yet, direct neurobiological evidence is scarce. Twenty-four adolescents (12–16) and 28 adults (25–35) completed an emotional n-back working memory task in response to happy, angry, and neutral faces during fMRI. Importantly, participants either paid attention to the emotion (task-relevant condition) or judged the gender (task-irrelevant condition). Behaviorally, for both groups, when happy faces were task-relevant, performance improved relative to when they were task-irrelevant, while performance decrements were seen for angry faces. In the dlPFC, angry faces elicited more activation in adults during low relative to high cognitive load (2-back vs. 0-back). By contrast, happy faces elicited more activation in the amygdala in adolescents when they were task-relevant. Happy faces also generally increased nucleus accumbens activity (regardless of relevance) in adolescents relative to adults. Together, the findings are consistent with neurobiological models of adolescent brain development and identify neurodevelopmental differences in cognitive control emotion interactions. Keywords: Development, fmri, Cognition emotion interaction, Cognitive control, Dual systems model, Triadic mode

Women with early maltreatment experience show increased resting-state functional connectivity in the theory of mind (ToM) network

Background: Experience of childhood maltreatment significantly increases the risk for the development of psychopathology and is associated with impairments in socio-cognitive skills including theory-of-mind (ToM). In turn, neural alterations in ToM processing might then influence future interpersonal interaction and social-emotional understanding. Objective: To assess resting-state activity in the theory-of-mind network in traumatized and non-traumatized persons. Methods: Thirty-five women with a history of childhood maltreatment and 31 unaffected women completed a resting-state scan and a ToM localizer task. The peak coordinates from the localizer were used as the seed regions for the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses (temporo-parietal junction, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus and precuneus). Results: Child abuse was associated with increased RSFC between various ToM regions including the precuneus and the brainstem suggesting altered hierarchical processing in ToM regions. Number of types of abuse was driving the effect for the temporo-parietal junction and the brainstem, while the severity of abuse was linked to increased RSFC between the middle temporal gyrus and the frontal cortex. Post-hoc analyses of brainstem regions indicated the involvement of the serotonergic system (dorsal raphe). Conclusions: The data indicate a lasting impact of childhood maltreatment on the neural networks involved in social information processing that are integral to understanding others' emotional states. Indeed, such altered neural networks may account for some of the interpersonal difficulties victims of childhood maltreatment experience

Preserved imitation of known gestures in children with high-functioning autism

It has been suggested that children with autism are particularly deficient at imitating novel gestures or gestures without goals. In the present study, we asked high-functioning autistic children and age-matched typically developing children to imitate several types of gestures that could be either already known or novel to them. Known gestures either conveyed a communicative meaning (i.e., intransitive) or involved the use of objects (i.e., transitive). We observed a significant interaction between gesture type and group of participants, with children with autism performing known gestures better than novel gestures. However, imitation of intransitive and transitive gestures did not differ across groups. These findings are discussed in light of a dual-route model for action imitation. Copyright \ua9 2013 Joana C. Carmo et al

Three shades of grey : detecting brain abnormalities in children with autism by using source-, voxel- and surface-based morphometry

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interactions, communication and stereotyped behavior. Recent evidence from neuroimaging supports the hypothesis that ASD deficits in adults may be related to abnormalities in a specific frontal - temporal network (Autism-specific Structural Network, ASN). To see whether these results extend to younger children and to better characterize these abnormalities, we applied three morphometric methods on brain grey matter of children with and without ASD. We selected 39 sMRI images of male children with ASD and 42 typically developing (TD) from the ABIDE database. We used Source -Based Morphometry (SoBM), a whole-brain multivariate approach to identify grey matter networks, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), a voxel-wise comparison of the local grey matter concentration, and Surface-Based Morphometry (SuBM) for the estimation of the cortical parameters. SoBM showed a bilateral frontal - parietal - temporal network different between groups, including the inferior - middle temporal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobule and the postcentral gyrus; VBM returned differences only in the right temporal lobe; SuBM returned a thinning in the right inferior temporal lobe thinner in ASD, a higher gyrification in the right superior parietal lobule in TD and in the middle frontal gyrus in ASD

Brain regions and functional interactions supporting early word recognition in the face of input variability

Perception and cognition in infants have been traditionally investigated using habituation paradigms, assuming that babies' memories in laboratory contexts are best constructed after numerous repetitions of the very same stimulus in the absence of interference. A crucial, yet open, question regards how babies deal with stimuli experienced in a fashion similar to everyday learning situations-namely, in the presence of interfering stimuli. To address this question, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to test 40 healthy newborns on their ability to encode words presented in concomitance with other words. The results evidenced a habituation-like hemodynamic response during encoding in the left-frontal region, which was associated with a progressive decrement of the functional connections between this region and the left-temporal, right-temporal, and right-parietal regions. In a recognition test phase, a characteristic neural signature of recognition recruited first the right-frontal region and subsequently the right-parietal ones. Connections originating from the right-temporal regions to these areas emerged when newborns listened to the familiar word in the test phase. These findings suggest a neural specialization at birth characterized by the lateralization of memory functions: the interplay between temporal and left-frontal regions during encoding and between temporo-parietal and right-frontal regions during recognition of speech sounds. Most critically, the results show that newborns are capable of retaining the sound of specific words despite hearing other stimuli during encoding. Thus, habituation designs that include various items may be as effective for studying early memory as repeated presentation of a single word.European Research Council under European Union 269502 CONICYT-Chile Program PIA/BASAL FB0003 "Progetto strategico NEURAT" from the University of Padua CONICYT-Chile Program PAI/Academia 7913002

Women with early maltreatment experience show increased resting-state functional connectivity in the theory of mind (ToM) network.

Background: Experience of childhood maltreatment significantly increases the risk for the development of psychopathology and is associated with impairments in socio-cognitive skills including theory-of-mind (ToM). In turn, neural alterations in ToM processing might then influence future interpersonal interaction and social-emotional understanding. Objective: To assess resting-state activity in the theory-of-mind network in traumatized and non-traumatized persons. Methods: Thirty-five women with a history of childhood maltreatment and 31 unaffected women completed a resting-state scan and a ToM localizer task. The peak coordinates from the localizer were used as the seed regions for the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses (temporo-parietal junction, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus and precuneus). Results: Child abuse was associated with increased RSFC between various ToM regions including the precuneus and the brainstem suggesting altered hierarchical processing in ToM regions. Number of types of abuse was driving the effect for the temporo-parietal junction and the brainstem, while the severity of abuse was linked to increased RSFC between the middle temporal gyrus and the frontal cortex. Post-hoc analyses of brainstem regions indicated the involvement of the serotonergic system (dorsal raphe). Conclusions: The data indicate a lasting impact of childhood maltreatment on the neural networks involved in social information processing that are integral to understanding others' emotional states. Indeed, such altered neural networks may account for some of the interpersonal difficulties victims of childhood maltreatment experience