Is He Being Bad?: Brain Activation During Social Judgment In Children with Autism

Background:

Individuals with autism often have difficulty making social judgments and often violate social rules (Baron-Cohen et al., 1999, JADD). Behavioral reports have indicated that children and adolescents with autism have lower accuracy in identifying and explaining inappropriate social behavior, suggesting that they use different reasoning in social interactions (e.g., Loveland et al., 2001, JADD, Nah & Poon, 2010, Autism). However, potential differences in the neural processes underlying this phenomenon have not yet been examined using fMRI and an age-appropriate task.

Objectives:

To compare the fMRI brain activity of children with and without autism in response to social versus physical judgments about similar images.

Methods:

Twelve children with autism (age: 8-16 years, mean = 13.1; FSIQ range = 87-135; mean = 112.1) and thirteen group-matched TD children (7-15 years, mean = 11.5; FSIQ: 97-131, mean = 116.6) participated in this IRB approved fMRI study. In 16 trials, participants had to indicate in which picture a blond-haired boy was being bad (Social condition). In another 16 trials, they had to determine which picture was outside (Physical condition). Trials were organized into eight blocks, four of Social choices and four of Physical Choices. For each of 32 trials, participants viewed two images simultaneously for 4s. The images were adaptations of Goofus and Gallant cartoons from Highlights magazine. Both images contained Goofus, and the children were asked to attend to him, “the blond-haired boy.” Then, the pictures remained up for another 4s while a symbol (either a sun or a universal sign for no) appeared below the images, indicating which question the child was supposed to answer. Icons of right and left hands each holding a computer mouse also appeared to prompt a response.

Results:

In the TD children, the Social-Physical comparison resulted in activity in Broca’s area, medial frontal cortex, and bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) (p<.001). The reverse Physical-Social comparison elicited bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) activity (p<.001). Children with autism showed bilateral pSTS activity in the Social-Physical comparison and bilateral STG activity in the Physical-Social comparison (p<.001). When the two groups were compared directly, the control group showed greater Broca’s area and medial frontal activity than the autism group for the Social-Physical comparison and greater right middle frontal gyrus and right inferior temporal gyrus activity in the Physical-Social comparison (p<.005). Both groups performed similarly on task accuracy (p<.05).

Conclusions:

The TD children drew upon Broca’s area (a language region) and medial frontal cortex (a social region; e.g., Amodio & Frith, 2006) along with bilateral pSTS to make social judgments. In contrast, the children with autism did not show increased activity in Broca’s area and medial frontal cortex when making social judgments. Their pattern of activation suggests reliance predominantly on posterior STS cortices alone and reduced involvement of anterior language and social cortices. This pattern may indicate reliance on visual rather than language and cognitive processes for social judgments.