Autism quotient predicts variation in resting state brain activity in normal individuals
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1
Medical Research Council Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, United Kingdom
Functional brain imaging is most often concerned with task-specific increases in brain activity, however significant task-independent changes have also been observed, particularly during passive or ‘resting’ states. The network of brains regions reported to be involved in resting state brain activity includes ventral and dorsal medial cortices including medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior medial cortex including posterior cingulate (PCC) and precuneus (PrC), as well as posterior lateral cortex including posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) (Gusnard & Raichle, 2001). More recently, Kennedy and colleagues (Kennedy et al, 2006) studied resting state activation in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) during a modified Stroop task and found that individuals with ASD showed less deactivation of resting state network regions, including mPFC, PrC, PCC and STS, during task conditions than normal control subjects. Using Baron-Cohen’s Autism Quotient (AQ) scale (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001), which is a measure of the degree to which adults with normal intelligence have traits associated with the autism spectrum, we examined whether individual differences in resting state activity could be accounted for by individual AQ scores. Using a counting Stroop task, we scanned 19 healthy, typical volunteers and compared activations and deactivations in brain regions while participants were performing the task or passively viewing a fixation cross. In keeping with previously published results, resting state network regions such as PrC and PCC were found to be significantly deactivated during the task compared to fixation condition. In addition, we found a highly significant modulation of resting state activation in posterior STS as a function of AQ, demonstrating that traits associated with autism form a continuous spectrum which differentially affects brain function in both healthy control subjects and individuals diagnosed with ASD.
References
1. Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R, Martin J, Clubley E. The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): evidence from Asperger Syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. J Aut Dev Dis 2001;31:5-17.
2. Gusnard DA, Raichle ME. Searching for a baseline: functional imaging and the resting human brain. Nat Neuro Rev 2001;2:685-94.
3. Kennedy DP, Redcay E, Courchesne E. Failing to deactivate: resting functional abnormalities in autism. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2006;103:8275-80.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Perceptual Processing and Recognition
Citation:
Von Dem Hagen
EA,
Yu
R,
Ewbank
M and
Calder
A
(2008). Autism quotient predicts variation in resting state brain activity in normal individuals.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.326
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Received:
15 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
15 Dec 2008.
*
Correspondence:
Elisabeth A Von Dem Hagen, Medical Research Council Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom, vondemHagenE@cardiff.ac.uk