title: Right temporoparietal gray matter predicts accuracy of social perception in the autism spectrum.
abstract: Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show hallmark deficits in social perception. These difficulties might also reflect fundamental deficits in integrating visual signals. We contrasted predictions of a social perception and a spatial-temporal integration deficit account. Participants with ASD and matched controls performed two tasks: the first required spatiotemporal integration of global motion signals without social meaning, the second required processing of socially relevant local motion. The ASD group only showed differences to controls in social motion evaluation. In addition, gray matter volume in the temporal-parietal junction correlated positively with accuracy in social motion perception in the ASD group. Our findings suggest that social-perceptual difficulties in ASD cannot be reduced to deficits in spatial-temporal integration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany, ndavid@uke.de.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: David
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Milne
authors.forename: Odette
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Schunke
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schöttle
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Münchau
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siegel
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vogeley
authors.forename: Andreas K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Engel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009929:Organ Size; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*