title: Brain Mechanisms for Processing Affective (and Nonaffective) Touch Are Atypical in Autism.
abstract: C-tactile (CT) afferents encode caress-like touch that supports social-emotional development, and stimulation of the CT system engages the insula and cortical circuitry involved in social-emotional processing. Very few neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of touch processing in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who often exhibit atypical responses to touch. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we evaluated the hypothesis that children and adolescents with ASD would exhibit atypical brain responses to CT-targeted touch. Children and adolescents with ASD, relative to typically developing (TD) participants, exhibited reduced activity in response to CT-targeted (arm) versus non-CT-targeted (palm) touch in a network of brain regions known to be involved in social-emotional information processing including bilateral insula and insular operculum, the right posterior superior temporal sulcus, bilateral temporoparietal junction extending into the inferior parietal lobule, right fusiform gyrus, right amygdala, and bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex including the inferior frontal and precentral gyri, suggesting atypical social brain hypoactivation. Individuals with ASD (vs. TD) showed an enhanced response to non-CT-targeted versus CT-targeted touch in the primary somatosensory cortex, suggesting atypical sensory cortical hyper-reactivity.
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Martha D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel Y-J
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Avery C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Voos
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Randi H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Ilanit
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pretzsch
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beam
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Cara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keifer
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eilbott
authors.affiliation: Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: McGlone
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Pelphrey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001132:Arm / Q000503:physiopathology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: affective touch; autism spectrum disorder; functional magnetic resonance imaging; insula; sensory hyper-reactivity; tactile perception