title: Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Accumulating evidence suggests that autonomic signals and their cortical representations are closely linked to emotional processes, and that related abnormalities could lead to social deficits. Although socio-emotional impairments are a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), empirical evidence directly supporting the link between autonomic, cortical, and socio-emotional abnormalities in ASD is still lacking. In this study, we examined autonomic arousal indexed by skin conductance responses (SCR), concurrent cortical responses measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging, and effective brain connectivity estimated by dynamic causal modeling in seventeen unmedicated high-functioning adults with ASD and seventeen matched controls while they performed an empathy-for-pain task. Compared to controls, adults with ASD showed enhanced SCR related to empathetic pain, along with increased neural activity in the anterior insular cortex, although their behavioral empathetic pain discriminability was reduced and overall SCR was decreased. ASD individuals also showed enhanced correlation between SCR and neural activities in the anterior insular cortex. Importantly, significant group differences in effective brain connectivity were limited to greater reduction in the negative intrinsic connectivity of the anterior insular cortex in the ASD group, indicating a failure in attenuating anterior insular responses to empathetic pain. These results suggest that aberrant interoceptive precision, as indexed by abnormalities in autonomic activity and its central representations, may underlie empathy deficits in ASD.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.|Virignia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virignia.
authors.forename: Xiaosi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Flushing, New York.|The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, New York.|Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Tehila
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eilam-Stock
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Flushing, New York.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Bloorview Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Evdokia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anagnostou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kolevzon
authors.affiliation: Rush University, Chicago.
authors.forename: Latha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Soorya
authors.affiliation: Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Patrick R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Hof
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Karl J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Friston
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York, Flushing, New York.|The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, New York.|Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.|Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
keywords: autism spectrum disorder; autonomic nervous system; brain connectivity; dynamic causal modeling; empathy; functional magnetic resonance imaging; interoceptive inference