title: Perception of social cues of danger in autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: Intuitive grasping of the meaning of subtle social cues is particularly affected in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Despite their relevance in social communication, the effect of averted gaze in fearful faces in conveying a signal of environmental threat has not been investigated using real face stimuli in adults with ASD. Here, using functional MRI, we show that briefly presented fearful faces with averted gaze, previously shown to be a strong communicative signal of environmental danger, produce different patterns of brain activation than fearful faces with direct gaze in a group of 26 normally intelligent adults with ASD compared with 26 matched controls. While implicit cue of threat produces brain activation in attention, emotion processing and mental state attribution networks in controls, this effect is absent in individuals with ASD. Instead, individuals with ASD show activation in the subcortical face-processing system in response to direct eye contact. An effect of differences in looking behavior was excluded in a separate eye tracking experiment. Our data suggest that individuals with ASD are more sensitive to direct eye contact than to social signals of danger conveyed by averted fearful gaze.
authors: Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland ; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors: Nicole R
authors: NR
authors: Zürcher
authors: Ophélie
authors: O
authors: Rogier
authors: Jasmine
authors: J
authors: Boshyan
authors: Loyse
authors: L
authors: Hippolyte
authors: Britt
authors: B
authors: Russo
authors: Nanna
authors: N
authors: Gillberg
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Helles
authors: Torsten
authors: T
authors: Ruest
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Lemonnier
authors: Christopher
authors: C
authors: Gillberg
authors: Nouchine
authors: N
authors: Hadjikhani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception