39.2 MULTIMODAL INVESTIGATION OF CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT PATTERNS OF ATYPICAL VISUAL PROCESSING UNDERLYING FACE EMOTION RECOGNITION AND MOTION PERCEPTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND AUTISM

• Published in: Schizophrenia bulletin Vol. 45; no. Supplement_2; pp. S151 - S152
• Main Authors: Martinez, Antigona, Tobe, Russell, Breland, Melissa, Lieval, Alexis, Ardekani, Babak, Javitt, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 09.04.2019
• Subjects: Autism; Cognition & reasoning; Plenary/Symposia; Schizophrenia
• ISSN: 0586-7614; 1745-1701
• DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbz022.160

Abstract Background Deficits in social cognition are core features of many neuropsychiatric disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SZ). One important component of social functioning is the ability to recognize and respond to the emotional content of faces. Face emotion recognition (FER) depends upon low-level and higher-level cognitive processes and, in the visual system, upon coordinated functioning of subcortical and cortical regions including the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus and early, ventral, dorsal and motion-sensitive regions of visual cortex for processing of both static and moving facial features. Impaired FER has been reported numerous times in SZ and ASD and, in both cases, linked to atypical neuronal activity within visual cortex. Despite overlaps, however, only a few studies to date have directly explored convergent and divergent neural mechanisms of visual processing in ASD and SZ. In this study we utilized a multimodal imaging approach to evaluate impaired FER and deficits in motion perception in relation to activation of subcortical and cortical visual regions. Methods Participants were 20 high-functioning adults with ASD (mean age 29 years), 19 patients diagnosed with SZ (mean age 37 years) and 17 healthy control (HC) volunteers (mean age 34 years). Psychiatric symptoms in SZ were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. ASD diagnosis was ascertained based on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. Behavioral measures of coherent motion detection were determined using random-dot kinematograms. FER was evaluated using the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (ER-40). Electrophysiological responses derived from interleaved recordings of visual pattern processing, motion-processing and oscillatory entrainment of the visual pathways were acquired and analyzed using spectral decomposition (time-frequency) methods. The relationship between behavioral measures of FER and motion perception and EEG measures of sensory processing was explored using functional MRI during passive viewing of moving and static stimuli. Resting state fMRI was used to assess the macro-organization of large-scale functional brain networks and, in particular, the relationship between cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical connectivity and atypical visual processing. Results As expected, SZ and ASD subjects showed equivalent deficits in FER. Likewise, motion sensitivity was equivalently impaired in both groups. The two groups, however, showed markedly different profiles of physiological dysfunction, suggesting differential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. In general, SZ patients showed reduced activation and functional connectivity whereas ASD subjects showed hyperactivity and hyperconnectivity. Further, in both groups, activation of the pulvinar correlated closely to dysregulation of visual alpha activity and increased clinical symptoms, with under- and over-modulation in the SZ and ASD groups, respectively. Taken together, the multimodal measures obtained here, discriminated SZ and ASD individuals with 100% accuracy highlighting the synergistic value of integration across units of analysis in investigation of social cognitive impairments across disorders and shedding light on the relative pathophysiology of FER deficits in SZ and ASD. Conclusions Multimodal measures may differentiate between two groups of individuals with convergent deficits in motion perception and social cognition, but divergent clinical presentations. The specific pattern of deficits observed in each group may help guide development of treatments designed to down- vs. up-regulate early visual processing within the respective patient groups.