title: Neural Basis of Visual Attentional Orienting in Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders.
abstract: We examined spontaneous attention orienting to visual salience in stimuli without social significance using a modified Dot-Probe task during functional magnetic resonance imaging in high-functioning preadolescent children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and age- and IQ-matched control children. While the magnitude of attentional bias (faster response to probes in the location of solid color patch) to visually salient stimuli was similar in the groups, activation differences in frontal and temporoparietal regions suggested hyper-sensitivity to visual salience or to sameness in ASD children. Further, activation in a subset of those regions was associated with symptoms of restricted and repetitive behavior. Thus, atypicalities in response to visual properties of stimuli may drive attentional orienting problems associated with ASD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 4444 Forest Park Parkway, Suite 2100, St Louis, MO, 63108, USA. murphye@psychiatry.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkley, Berkley, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Norr
authors.affiliation: Children's Research Institute, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Strang
authors.affiliation: Children's Research Institute, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kenworthy
authors.affiliation: Children's Research Institute, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Gaillard
authors.affiliation: Children's Research Institute, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, USA.|Department of Psychology, 306 White-Gravenor Hall, Georgetown University, 37th and O Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20057, USA.
authors.forename: Chandan J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Vaidya
mesh_terms: D000070379:Attentional Bias / Q000502:physiology*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Attention orienting; Autism spectrum disorder; Restricted and repetitive behavior; Visual salience; fMRI