title: So close yet so far: Motor anomalies impacting on social functioning in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Difficulties in the social domain and motor anomalies have been widely investigated in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, they have been generally considered as independent, and therefore tackled separately. Recent advances in neuroscience have hypothesized that the cortical motor system can play a role not only as a controller of elementary physical features of movement, but also in a complex domain as social cognition. Here, going beyond previous studies on ASD that described difficulties in the motor and in the social domain separately, we focus on the impact of motor mechanisms anomalies on social functioning. We consider behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging findings supporting the idea that motor cognition is a critical "intermediate phenotype" for ASD. Motor cognition anomalies in ASD affect the processes of extraction, codification and subsequent translation of "external" social information into the motor system. Intriguingly, this alternative "motor" approach to the social domain difficulties in ASD may be promising to bridge the gap between recent experimental findings and clinical practice, potentially leading to refined preventive approaches and successful treatments.
authors: Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientiﬁc Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea Bosisio Parini, Italy; Developmental Psychopathology Unit, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Italy. Electronic address: luca.casartelli@bp.lnf.it.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Casartelli
authors: Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientiﬁc Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea Bosisio Parini, Italy.
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Molteni
authors: Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientiﬁc Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea Bosisio Parini, Italy; Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy. Electronic address: luca.ronconi.2@unipd.it.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Ronconi
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Brain network; Mirror mechanisms; Motor cognition; Motor interference; Motor resonance