Neural signatures of autism
1. Martha D. Kaiser a,
2. Caitlin M. Hudac a,
3. Sarah Shultz a,b,
4. Su Mei Lee a,b,
5. Celeste Cheung a,
6. Allison M. Berken a,
7. Ben Deen a,
8. Naomi B. Pitskel a,
9. Daniel R. Sugrue a,
10. Avery C. Voos a,
11. Celine A. Saulnier a,
12. Pamela Ventola a,
13. Julie M. Wolf a,
14. Ami Klin a,
15. Brent C. Vander Wyk a, and
16. Kevin A. Pelphrey a,b,1
a Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, and
b Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain responses to biological motion in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), unaffected siblings (US) of children with ASD, and typically developing (TD) children has revealed three types of neural signatures: (i) state activity, related to the state of having ASD that characterizes the nature of disruption in brain circuitry; (ii) trait activity, reflecting shared areas of dysfunction in US and children with ASD, thereby providing a promising neuroendophenotype to facilitate efforts to bridge genomic complexity and disorder heterogeneity; and (iii) compensatory activity, unique to US, suggesting a neural system–level mechanism by which US might compensate for an increased genetic risk for developing ASD. The distinct brain responses to biological motion exhibited by TD children and US are striking given the identical behavioral profile of these two groups. These findings offer far-reaching implications for our understanding of the neural systems underlying autism.
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