Although diagnosed on the basis of deficits in social communication and interaction, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is also characterized by superior performance on a variety of visuospatial tasks, including visual search. In neurotypical individuals, region‐specific concentrations of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) are associated with individual differences in attention and perception. While it has been hypothesized that ASD may be associated with an excitatory–inhibitory imbalance, it remains unclear how this may contribute to accelerated visual search performance in individuals with ASD. To investigate this, 21 children with ASD and 20 typically developing children participated in a visual search task and a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study to detect neurochemical concentrations, including GABA. Region‐specific neurochemicals were examined in the right frontal eye fields, right temporal–parietal junction (rTPJ), and bilateral visual cortex (VIS). GABA concentrations did not differ between groups; however, in children with ASD, greater GABA concentration in the VIS was related to more efficient search. Additionally, lower VIS GABA levels were also associated with increased social impairment. Finally, we found reduced N‐acetyl aspartate, total creatine, glutamate and glutamine (Glx), GABA/Glx in the rTPJ, suggestive of neuronal dysfunction in a critical network hub. Our results show that GABA concentrations in the VIS are related to efficient search in ASD, thus providing further evidence of enhanced discrimination in ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 550–562. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

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磁共振波谱研究自闭症谱系障碍儿童优越的视觉搜索能力。

尽管自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是根据社交沟通和互动中的缺陷进行诊断的，但其特征还在于其在包括视觉搜索在内的各种视觉空间任务中均具有出色的表现。在神经型个体中，抑制性神经递质γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）的区域特定浓度与注意力和感知力的个体差异有关。尽管已经假设ASD可能与兴奋性-抑制性失衡有关，但仍不清楚这可能如何促进ASD个体的视觉搜索性能加速。为了对此进行调查，有21名ASD儿童和20名典型发育中的儿童参加了视觉搜索任务和磁共振波谱研究，以检测神经化学浓度，包括GABA。在右额眼视野，右颞-顶叶交界处（rTPJ）和双侧视皮层（VIS）中检查了特定区域的神经化学物质。两组之间的GABA浓度没有差异；但是，对于患有自闭症的儿童，VIS中GABA的浓度较高与更有效的搜索有关。此外，较低的VIS GABA水平也与社会障碍增加有关。最后，我们发现减少了rTPJ中的N-乙酰天门冬氨酸，总肌酸，谷氨酸和谷氨酰胺（Glx），GABA / Glx，提示关键网络枢纽中的神经元功能异常。我们的结果表明，VIS中的GABA浓度与ASD的有效搜索有关，因此提供了进一步增强ASD歧视的证据。Autism Res 2020，13：550–562。©2019国际自闭症研究会，Wiley Periodicals，Inc.