ABSTRACT

Objective

The present study sought to measure and internally validate neural markers of facial emotion recognition (FER) in adolescents and young adults with ASD to inform targeted intervention.

Method

We utilized fMRI to measure patterns of brain activity among individuals with ASD (N = 21) and matched controls (CON; N = 20) 2 s prior to judgments about the identity of six distinct facial emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, disgust).

Results

Predictive modeling of fMRI data (support vector classification; SVC) identified mechanistic roles for brain regions that forecasted correct and incorrect identification of facial emotion as well as sources of errors over these decisions. BOLD signal activation in bilateral insula, anterior cingulate (ACC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) preceded accurate FER in both controls and ASD. Predictive modeling utilizing SVC confirmed the utility of ACC in forecasting correct decisions in controls but not ASD, and further indicated that a region within the right dlPFC was the source of a type 1 error signal in ASD (i.e. neural marker reflecting an impending correct judgment followed by an incorrect behavioral response) approximately two seconds prior to emotion judgments during fMRI.

Conclusions

ACC forecasted correct decisions only among control participants. Right dlPFC was the source of a false-positive signal immediately prior to an error about the nature of a facial emotion in adolescents and young adults with ASD, potentially consistent with prior work indicating that dlPFC may play a role in attention to and regulation of emotional experience.

中文翻译：

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自闭症面部情绪识别的神经机制：前扣带回和 dlPFC 的不同作用

 抽象的

 客观的

本研究旨在测量和内部验证患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的青少年和年轻人的面部情绪识别 (FER) 神经标志物，以便为有针对性的干预提供信息。

 方法

我们利用功能磁共振成像来测量 ASD 个体 ( N = 21) 和匹配对照 (CON; N = 20) 2 秒的大脑活动模式，然后判断六种不同的面部情绪（快乐、悲伤、愤怒、惊讶、恐惧、厌恶）。

 结果

fMRI 数据的预测模型（支持向量分类；SVC）确定了大脑区域的机械作用，这些区域可以预测面部情绪的正确和错误识别以及这些决策的错误来源。在对照组和 ASD 中，双侧岛叶、前扣带回 (ACC) 和右背外侧前额叶皮层 (dlPFC) 的 BOLD 信号激活先于准确的 FER。利用 SVC 的预测模型证实了 ACC 在预测对照中而非 ASD 中的正确决策方面的效用，并进一步表明，右侧 dlPFC 内的一个区域是 ASD 中 1 型错误信号的来源（即反映随后即将发生的正确判断的神经标记）在功能磁共振成像期间进行情绪判断之前大约两秒。

 结论

ACC 仅在对照参与者中预测出正确的决策。右侧 dlPFC 是在患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的青少年和年轻人的面部情绪性质出现错误之前立即产生假阳性信号的来源，这可能与之前的工作一致，表明 dlPFC 可能在注意力和情绪调节中发挥作用经验。