Increased Functional Connectivity During Emotional Face Processing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate poor social functioning, which may be related to atypical emotional face processing. Altered functional connectivity among brain regions, particularly involving limbic structures may be implicated. The current magnetoencephalography (MEG) s...

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Published inFrontiers in human neuroscience Vol. 12; p. 408
Main Authors Safar, Kristina, Wong, Simeon M, Leung, Rachel C, Dunkley, Benjamin T, Taylor, Margot J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 10.10.2018
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects
ASD
Autism
Automation
Brain research
Children
emotional face processing
Emotions
Face
functional connectivity
Magnetoencephalography
Neural networks
Neuroscience
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Pattern recognition
Psychiatry
Studies
Synchronization
Teenagers
Canada
emotional face processing
ASD
functional connectivity
children
magnetoencephalography
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Summary:Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate poor social functioning, which may be related to atypical emotional face processing. Altered functional connectivity among brain regions, particularly involving limbic structures may be implicated. The current magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated whole-brain functional connectivity of eight identified brain regions during the implicit presentation of happy and angry faces in 20 7 to 10-year-old children with ASD and 22 typically developing controls. Findings revealed a network of increased alpha-band phase synchronization during the first 400 ms of happy face processing in children with ASD compared to controls. This network of increased alpha-band phase synchronization involved the left fusiform gyrus, right insula, and frontal regions critical for emotional face processing. In addition, greater connectivity strength of the left fusiform gyrus (maximal 85 to 208 ms) and right insula (maximal 73 to 270 ms) following happy face presentation in children with ASD compared to typically developing controls was found. These findings reflect altered neuronal communication in children with ASD only to happy faces during implicit emotional face processing.
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Reviewed by: Gennady Knyazev, State Scientific-Research Institute of Physiology and Basic Medicine, Russia; Tal Kenet, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, United States
Edited by: Srikantan S. Nagarajan, University of California, San Francisco, United States
ISSN:1662-5161
1662-5161
DOI:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00408