Cortical underconnectivity coupled with preserved visuospatial cognition in autism: Evidence from an fMRI study of an embedded figures task

Autism Research

Volumn 3, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 273-279

  Damarla, Saudamini Roy ^a   Keller, Timothy A ^a   Kana, Rajesh K ^a,b   Cherkassky, Vladimir L ^a   Williams, Diane L ^a,c   Minshew, Nancy J ^d   Just, Marcel Adam ^a  

^a CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM   (United States)

^c DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

Corpus callosum; Embedded figures task; Functional connectivity; Functional MRI

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AGE; ANGULAR GYRUS; ARTICLE; AUTISM; BRAIN CORTEX; BRAIN FUNCTION; CLINICAL ARTICLE; COGNITION; CONTROLLED STUDY; CORPUS CALLOSUM; CUNEUS; FEMALE; FRONTAL CORTEX; FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; HUMAN; INFERIOR PARIETAL LOBULE; INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT; MALE; MENTAL TASK; OCCIPITAL CORTEX; PARIETAL CORTEX; PRECENTRAL SULCUS; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; PRIORITY JOURNAL; PUTAMEN; SUPRAMARGINAL GYRUS; TASK PERFORMANCE; THALAMUS; VISUOSPATIAL COGNITION;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; AUTISTIC DISORDER; BRAIN MAPPING; CEREBRAL CORTEX; COGNITION; FEMALE; HUMANS; IMAGE PROCESSING, COMPUTER-ASSISTED; MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; MALE; PATTERN RECOGNITION, VISUAL; SPACE PERCEPTION; TASK PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 79251483155     PISSN: 19393792     EISSN: 19393806     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/aur.153     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. Baron-Cohen, S., & Hammer, J. (1997). Parents of children with Asperger syndrome: What is the cognitive phenotype? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 548-554.
2. Brian, J.A., & Bryson, S.E. (1996). Disembedding performance and recognition memory in autism/PDD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 865-872.
3. De Jonge, M.V., Kemner, C., & van Engeland, H. (2006). Superior disembedding performance of high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their parents: The need for subtle measures. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 677-683.
4. Frazier, T.W., & Hardan, A.Y. (2009). A meta-analysis of the corpus callosum in autism. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 935-941.
5. Hardan, A.Y., Minshew, N.J., & Keshavan, M.S. (2000). Corpus callosum size in autism. Neurology, 55, 1033-1036.
6. Hollingshead, A.A. (1957). Four-factor index of social status. Unpublished manuscript. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
7. Jolliffe, T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Are people with autism and Asperger syndrome faster than normal on the embedded figures test? Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 38, 527-534.
8. Just, M.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Keller, T.A., & Minshew, N.J. (2004). Cortical activation and synchronization during sentence comprehension in high-functioning autism: Evidence of underconnectivity. Brain, 127, 1811-1821.
9. Just, M.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Keller, T.A., Kana, R.K., & Minshew, N.J. (2007). Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: Evidence from an fMRI study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 951-961.
10. Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (2006). Sentence comprehension in autism: Thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity. Brain, 129, 2484-2493.
11. Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (2007). Inhibitory control in high functioning autism: Decreased activation and underconnectivity in inhibition networks. Biological Psychiatry, 62, 198-206.
12. Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (2009). Atypical frontal-posterior synchronization of theory of mind regions in autism during mental state attribution. Social Neuroscience, 4:135-152.
13. Keller, T.A., Kana, R.K., & Just, M.A. (2007). A developmental study of the structural integrity of white matter in autism. NeuroReport, 18, 23-27.
14. Koshino, H., Carpenter, P.A., Minshew, N.J., Cherkassky, V.L., Keller, T.A., & Just, M.A. (2005). Functional connectivity in an fMRI working memory task in high-functioning autism. NeuroImage, 24, 810-821.
15. Koshino, H., Kana, R.K., Keller, T.A., Cherkassky, V.L., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (2008). fMRI investigation of working memory for faces in autism: Visual coding and underconnectivity with frontal areas. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 300-389.
16. Lee, P.S., Foss-Feig, J., Henderson, J.G., Kenworthy, L.E., Gilotty, L., et al. (2007). Atypical neural substrates of embedded figures. Task performance in children with autism spectrum disorder. NeuroImage, 38, 184-193.
17. Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E.H., Leventhal, B.L., et al. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205-223.
18. Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659-685.
19. Manes, F., Piven, J., Vrancic, D., Nanclares, V., Plebst, C., & Starkstein, S.E. (1999). An MRI study of the corpus callosum and cerebellum in mentally retarded autistic individuals. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 11, 470-474.
20. Manjaly, Z.M., Bruning, N., Neufang, S., Stephan, K.E., Brieber, S., et al. (2007). Neurophysiological correlates of relatively enhanced local visual search in autistic adolescents. NeuroImage, 35, 283-291.
21. Mason, R.A., Williams, D.L., Kana, R.K., Minshew, N.J., & Just, M.A. (2008). Theory of mind disruption and recruitment of the right hemisphere during narrative comprehension in autism. Neuropsychologia, 46, 269-280.
22. Minshew, N.J. (1996). Autism. In: Berg, B.O., editors. Principles of child neurology, New York: McGraw-Hill, pp 1713-1729.
23. Mottron, L., Belleville, S., & Ménard, E. (1999). Local bias in autistic subjects as evidenced by graphic tasks: Perceptual hierarchization or working memory deficit? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 743-755.
24. Mottron, L., Burack, J.A., Iarocci, G., Belleville, S., & Enns, J.T. (2003). Locally oriented perception with intact global processing among adolescents with high-functioning autism: Evidence from multiple paradigms. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 904-913.
25. Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulières, I., Hubert, B., & Burack, J.A. (2006). Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principle of autistic perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 27-43.
26. Piven, J., Bailey, J., Ranson, B.J., & Arndt, S. (1997). An MRI study of the corpus callosum in autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1051-1056.
27. Quigley, M., Cordes, D., Wendt, G., Turski, P., Moritz, C., et al. (2001). Effect of focal and nonfocal cerebral lesions on functional connectivity studied with MR imaging. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 22, 294-300.
28. Ring, H.A., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Williams, S.C.R., Brammer, M., et al. (1999). Cerebral correlates of preserved cognitive skills in autism: A functional MRI study of embedded figures task performance. Brain, 122, 1305-1315.
29. Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1983). An islet of ability in autistic children: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 24, 613-620.
30. Vidal, C.N., Nicolson, R., De Vito, T., Hayashi, K.M., Drost, D.J., Williamson, P.C., et al. (2006). Mapping corpus callosum deficits in autism: An index of aberrant cortical connectivity. Biological Psychiatry, 60, 218-225.