fMRI study of recognition of facial expressions in high-functioning autistic patients.
Autistic disorder is associated with deficits in social function. The disorder may be related to dysfunction in the brain regions that are involved in the process of recognising facial expressions of other persons. Using fMRI, we investigated whether autistic patients with relatively high IQ would have different brain activation on the tasks of recognition of facial expressions (i.e. faces expressing disgust, fear, and happiness) compared with normal control subjects. In disgust and fear recognition tasks, there were different patterns of brain activation in the cortico-limbic neural circuits qbetween autistic and normal groups. Patients with autistic disorder may have difficulty in grasping facially expressed qemotions in others, and thereby cannot manipulate the interpersonally derived information.
Ogai
Masahiro
M
Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, University school of medicine, 20-I, Handayama I-chome, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan.
Matsumoto
Hideo
H
Suzuki
Katsuaki
K
Ozawa
Fukujirou
F
Fukuda
Rinmei
R
Uchiyama
Ichiro
I
Suckling
John
J
Isoda
Haruo
H
Mori
Norio
N
Takei
Nori
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation