Changes in Intrinsic Activity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Causally Explain Differences in Emotion Perception in Autism / Martina FANGHELLA in Autism Research, 19-4 (April 2026)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 19-4 (April 2026) . - e70197 Titre : Changes in Intrinsic Activity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Causally Explain Differences in Emotion Perception in Autism Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Martina FANGHELLA, Auteur ; Danai DIMA, Auteur ; Dimitrios PINOTSIS, Auteur ; Sebastian B. GAIGG, Auteur ; Beatriz CALVO-MERINO, Auteur ; Bettina FORSTER, Auteur Article en page(s) : e70197 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  dynamic causal modeling  EEG  embodiment  emotion  somatosensory Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by certain difficulties in emotion-related processing. Recent research using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure somatosensory evoked potentials during emotion perception has shown reduced embodiment of emotional expressions in autistic compared to neurotypical individuals, independently from differences in visual processing. However, the underlying neural dynamics are not clear. In this study, we use Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) on EEG data to investigate whether reduced embodiment during emotion processing in ASD individuals is caused by changes in intrinsic connectivity within the somatosensory cortex, or by top-down modulatory effects from higher-order frontal areas. We constructed a model involving the primary and secondary right somatosensory cortex, the right supplementary motor area and the right inferior frontal gyrus, and tested effective connectivity during emotion or gender discrimination tasks in two groups of ASD and typically developing (TD) participants (n?=?38, male and female, 2 females). Our results reveal that task-related differences in electrocortical activity between the emotion and gender tasks are causally explained by changes in intrinsic activity within the right primary somatosensory cortex (rS1) in both TD and ASD. Importantly, these intrinsic changes in rS1 are significantly different between TD and ASD groups and individual task-related changes in rS1 significantly correlate with alexithymia traits. Our study provides novel evidence on the neural dynamics underlying difficulties in emotion processing in ASD individuals, highlighting that differential intrinsic activations of the rS1 are causally involved in such difficulties, and suggests that they are mediated by alexithymia. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70197 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=585 [article] Changes in Intrinsic Activity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Causally Explain Differences in Emotion Perception in Autism [texte imprimé] / Martina FANGHELLA, Auteur ; Danai DIMA, Auteur ; Dimitrios PINOTSIS, Auteur ; Sebastian B. GAIGG, Auteur ; Beatriz CALVO-MERINO, Auteur ; Bettina FORSTER, Auteur . - e70197. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 19-4 (April 2026) . - e70197 Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  dynamic causal modeling  EEG  embodiment  emotion  somatosensory Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by certain difficulties in emotion-related processing. Recent research using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure somatosensory evoked potentials during emotion perception has shown reduced embodiment of emotional expressions in autistic compared to neurotypical individuals, independently from differences in visual processing. However, the underlying neural dynamics are not clear. In this study, we use Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) on EEG data to investigate whether reduced embodiment during emotion processing in ASD individuals is caused by changes in intrinsic connectivity within the somatosensory cortex, or by top-down modulatory effects from higher-order frontal areas. We constructed a model involving the primary and secondary right somatosensory cortex, the right supplementary motor area and the right inferior frontal gyrus, and tested effective connectivity during emotion or gender discrimination tasks in two groups of ASD and typically developing (TD) participants (n?=?38, male and female, 2 females). Our results reveal that task-related differences in electrocortical activity between the emotion and gender tasks are causally explained by changes in intrinsic activity within the right primary somatosensory cortex (rS1) in both TD and ASD. Importantly, these intrinsic changes in rS1 are significantly different between TD and ASD groups and individual task-related changes in rS1 significantly correlate with alexithymia traits. Our study provides novel evidence on the neural dynamics underlying difficulties in emotion processing in ASD individuals, highlighting that differential intrinsic activations of the rS1 are causally involved in such difficulties, and suggests that they are mediated by alexithymia. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70197 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=585

Episodic Recollection Difficulties in ASD Result from Atypical Relational Encoding: Behavioral and Neural Evidence / Sebastian B. GAIGG in Autism Research, 8-3 (June 2015)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 8-3 (June 2015) . - p.317-327 Titre : Episodic Recollection Difficulties in ASD Result from Atypical Relational Encoding: Behavioral and Neural Evidence Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Sebastian B. GAIGG, Auteur ; Dermot M. BOWLER, Auteur ; Christine ECKER, Auteur ; Beatriz CALVO-MERINO, Auteur ; Declan G.M. MURPHY, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.317-327 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism  relational memory  item memory  recollection  familiarity Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Memory functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in the encoding of relational but not item information and difficulties in the recollection of contextually rich episodic memories but not in the retrieval of relatively context-free memories through processes of familiarity. The neural underpinnings of this profile and the extent to which encoding difficulties contribute to retrieval difficulties in ASD remain unclear. Using a paradigm developed by Addis and McAndrews [2006; Neuroimage, 33, 1194–1206] we asked adults with and without a diagnosis of ASD to study word-triplets during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning that varied in the number of category relations amongst component words. Performance at test confirmed attenuated recollection in the context of preserved familiarity based retrieval in ASD. The results also showed that recollection but not familiarity based retrieval increases as a function of category relations in word triads for both groups, indicating a close link between the encoding of relational information and recollection. This link was further supported by the imaging results, where blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal responses in overlapping regions of the inferior prefrontal cortex were sensitive to the relational encoding manipulation as well as the contrast between recollection versus familiarity based retrieval. Interestingly, however, there was no evidence of prefrontal signal differentiation for this latter contrast in the ASD group for whom signal changes in a left hippocampal region were also marginally attenuated. Together, these observations suggest that attenuated levels of episodic recollection in ASD are, at least in part, attributable to anomalies in relational encoding processes. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.1448 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=261 [article] Episodic Recollection Difficulties in ASD Result from Atypical Relational Encoding: Behavioral and Neural Evidence [texte imprimé] / Sebastian B. GAIGG, Auteur ; Dermot M. BOWLER, Auteur ; Christine ECKER, Auteur ; Beatriz CALVO-MERINO, Auteur ; Declan G.M. MURPHY, Auteur . - p.317-327. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 8-3 (June 2015) . - p.317-327 Mots-clés : autism  relational memory  item memory  recollection  familiarity Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Memory functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in the encoding of relational but not item information and difficulties in the recollection of contextually rich episodic memories but not in the retrieval of relatively context-free memories through processes of familiarity. The neural underpinnings of this profile and the extent to which encoding difficulties contribute to retrieval difficulties in ASD remain unclear. Using a paradigm developed by Addis and McAndrews [2006; Neuroimage, 33, 1194–1206] we asked adults with and without a diagnosis of ASD to study word-triplets during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning that varied in the number of category relations amongst component words. Performance at test confirmed attenuated recollection in the context of preserved familiarity based retrieval in ASD. The results also showed that recollection but not familiarity based retrieval increases as a function of category relations in word triads for both groups, indicating a close link between the encoding of relational information and recollection. This link was further supported by the imaging results, where blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal responses in overlapping regions of the inferior prefrontal cortex were sensitive to the relational encoding manipulation as well as the contrast between recollection versus familiarity based retrieval. Interestingly, however, there was no evidence of prefrontal signal differentiation for this latter contrast in the ASD group for whom signal changes in a left hippocampal region were also marginally attenuated. Together, these observations suggest that attenuated levels of episodic recollection in ASD are, at least in part, attributable to anomalies in relational encoding processes. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.1448 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=261

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