Interoception involves the processing of sensory information relevant to physiological functioning and is integral to building self‐awareness, emotional states, and modulating social behaviors. With the role of interoception in emotional processing and social functioning, there is growing interest in characterizing interoception in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet, there are mixed results regarding cardiac interoceptive accuracy in ASD. In this study, we explored the neural basis of cardiac interoception using an fMRI heartbeat‐counting task in order to assess neural correlates of primary interoception. We predicted that interoceptive‐specific response in the insula, a “hub” for interoception, would be related to ASD symptomatology. We investigated the relationship of insula responses during cardiac interoceptive focus and a self/caregiver‐reported autism‐related symptom scale (Social Responsiveness Scale‐2 (SRS)). Participants included 46 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (age 8–54, mean = 19.43 ± 10.68 years) and 54 individuals with typical development for comparison (TC, age 8–53, mean = 21.43 ± 10.41 years). We found no significant difference in cardiac interoceptive accuracy or neural response to cardiac interoception focus in ASD. Several insula subdivisions had a curvilinear relationship to age, peaking in early adulthood. Interoceptive‐specific insula response was associated with adult self‐report SRS scores; this association differed by diagnostic group and was not present for caregiver‐reported scores. This work suggests that (a) there is no global deficit in cardiac interoception in ASD, but integrating interoceptive cues with social information may distinguish individuals with ASD, and (b) there is a developmental trajectory for interoceptive processing in the insula that may be relevant for socio‐emotional health. Autism Res 2020, 13: 908‐920. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

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整个发展过程中心脏交互感受焦点的神经相关性：对自闭症谱系障碍社会症状的影响。

互感涉及涉及与生理功能有关的感觉信息的处理，并且是建立自我意识，情绪状态和调节社会行为所不可或缺的。随着自我感知在情绪加工和社交功能中的作用，人们越来越有兴趣描述自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中的自我感知，然而，关于ASD中的心脏自我感知准确性的结果却参差不齐。在这项研究中，我们使用fMRI心跳计数任务探索了心脏接受感觉的神经基础，以便评估原发性接受感觉的神经相关性。我们预言，在岛上的特定于感受器的反应，即“感受”的“枢纽”，将与ASD症状有关。我们研究了在心脏感受性关注过程中的岛状反应与自我/护理人员报告的自闭症相关症状量表（社会反应量表2（SRS））之间的关系。参加者包括46例自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者（8-54岁，平均= 19.43±10.68岁）和54例具有典型发育特征的个体（TC，8-53岁，平均= 21.43±10.41岁）。我们发现，在ASD中，心脏的感受力准确性或对心脏的感受力聚焦的神经反应无显着差异。几个绝缘子细分与年龄呈曲线关系，在成年初期达到顶峰。特定于感觉的绝缘反应与成人自我报告的SRS得分相关；该关联因诊断组的不同而不同，并且在看护人报告的分数中不存在。自闭症水库2020年，13：908-920。©2020国际自闭症研究协会，Wiley Periodicals，Inc.。