Autism is characterised not only by impaired social cognitive ‘empathising’ but also by superior rule-based ‘systemising’. These cognitive domains intertwine within the categorical diagnosis of autism, yet behavioural genetics suggest largely independent heritability, and separable brain mechanisms. We sought to determine whether quantitative behavioural measures of autistic traits are dimensionally associated with structural and functional brain network integrity, and whether brain bases of autistic traits vary independently across individuals. Thirty right-handed neurotypical adults (12 females) were administered psychometric (Social Responsiveness Scale, Autism Spectrum Quotient and Systemising Quotient) and behavioural (Attention Network Test and theory-of-mind reaction time) measures of autistic traits, and structurally (diffusion tensor imaging) and functionally (500 s of 2 Hz eyes-closed resting fMRI) derived graph-theoretic measures of efficiency of information integration were computed throughout the brain and within subregions. Social impairment was positively associated with functional efficiency (r = .47, p = .006), globally and within temporo-parietal and prefrontal cortices. Delayed orienting of attention likewise was associated with greater functional efficiency (r = − .46, p = .0133). Systemising was positively associated with global structural efficiency (r = .38, p = 0.018), driven specifically by temporal pole; theory-of-mind reaction time was related to structural efficiency (r = − .40, p = 0.0153) within right supramarginal gyrus. Interpretation of these relationships is complicated by the many senses of the term ‘connectivity’, including functional, structural and computational; by the approximation inherent in group functional anatomical parcellations when confronted with individual variation in functional anatomy; and by the validity, sensitivity and specificity of the several survey and experimental behavioural measures applied as correlates of brain structure and function. Functional connectivities highlight distributed networks associated with domain-general properties such as attentional orienting and social cognition broadly, associating more impaired behaviour with more efficient brain networks that may reflect heightened feedforward information flow subserving autistic strengths and deficits alike. Structural connectivity results highlight specific anatomical nodes of convergence, reflecting cognitive and neuroanatomical independence of systemising and theory-of-mind. In addition, this work shows that individual differences in theory-of-mind related to brain structure can be measured behaviourally, and offers neuroanatomical evidence to pin down the slippery construct of ‘systemising’ as the capacity to construct invariant contextual associations.

中文翻译：

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自闭症特征和个体大脑差异：功能网络效率反映注意力和社交障碍、结构节点效率指数系统化和心理理论技能

自闭症的特征不仅在于社会认知“同理心”受损，而且还在于优越的基于规则的“系统化”。这些认知领域在自闭症的分类诊断中交织在一起，但行为遗传学表明很大程度上独立的遗传性和可分离的大脑机制。我们试图确定自闭症特征的定量行为测量是否与结构和功能的大脑网络完整性在维度上相关，以及自闭症特征的大脑基础是否因个体而异。对 30 名右手神经典型的成年人（12 名女性）进行心理测量（社会反应量表、自闭症谱商和系统商）和行为（注意力网络测试和心理理论反应时间）测量自闭症特征，在结构上（扩散张量成像）和功能上（500 秒 2 Hz 闭眼静息 fMRI）衍生的图论测量信息整合效率在整个大脑和子区域内进行计算。社交障碍与功能效率呈正相关（r = .47，p = .006），在全球范围内以及在颞顶叶和前额叶皮质内。注意力的延迟定向同样与更高的功能效率相关（r = - .46，p = .0133）。系统化与全球结构效率正相关（r = .38，p = 0.018），特别是由时间极点驱动；心理理论反应时间与右缘上回的结构效率（r = - .40，p = 0.0153）有关。对这些关系的解释因“连通性”一词的多种含义而变得复杂，包括功能、结构和计算；当面对功能解剖学的个体变异时，通过群体功能解剖学分割中固有的近似；并且通过作为大脑结构和功能相关物应用的若干调查和实验行为测量的有效性、敏感性和特异性。功能连接突出了与领域一般特性相关的分布式网络，例如广泛的注意力定向和社会认知，将更受损的行为与更有效的大脑网络联系起来，这可能反映了增强的前馈信息流，这些信息流辅助了自闭症的优势和缺陷。结构连通性结果突出了收敛的特定解剖节点，反映系统化和心理理论的认知和神经解剖独立性。此外，这项工作表明，可以从行为上衡量与大脑结构相关的心理理论的个体差异，并提供神经解剖学证据来确定“系统化”的滑溜构造作为构建不变上下文关联的能力。