Parahippocampal deactivation and hyperactivation of central executive, saliency and social cognition networks in autism spectrum disorder

• Published in: Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 9 - 12
• Main Authors: Mouga, Susana, Duarte, Isabel Catarina, Café, Cátia, Sousa, Daniela, Duque, Frederico, Oliveira, Guiomar, Castelo-Branco, Miguel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 25.01.2022; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Age; Autism; Autism spectrum disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder - complications; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Central executive network; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Deactivation; Ecological task; Electronic commerce; fMRI; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Human Genetics; Humans; Intellectual disabilities; Intelligence; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical imaging; Mimicry; Neurodevelopment; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; Parahippocampal gyrus; Pediatrics; Psychiatry; Saliency network; Scanners; Social Cognition; Social cognition network; Social interactions; Social organization; Supermarkets; Virtual reality; United States > US; fMRI; Ecological task; Central executive network; Saliency network; Autism spectrum disorder; Social cognition network
• ISSN: 1866-1947; 1866-1955; 1866-1955
• DOI: 10.1186/s11689-022-09417-1

Background The concomitant role of the Central Executive, the Saliency and the Social Cognition networks in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in demanding ecological tasks remains unanswered. We addressed this question using a novel task-based fMRI virtual-reality task mimicking a challenging daily-life chore that may present some difficulties to individuals with ASD: the EcoSupermarketX. Methods Participants included 29 adolescents: 15 with ASD and 15 with typical neurodevelopment (TD). They performed the EcoSupermarketX (a shopping simulation with three goal-oriented sub-tasks including “no cue”, “non-social” or “social” cues), during neuroimaging and eye-tracking. Results ASD differed from TD only in total time and distance to complete the “social cue” sub-task with matched eye-tracking measures. Neuroimaging revealed simultaneous hyperactivation across social, executive, and saliency circuits in ASD. In contrast, ASD showed reduced activation in the parahippocampal gyrus, involved in scene recognition. Conclusions When performing a virtual shopping task matching the performance of controls, ASD adolescents hyperactivate three core networks: executive, saliency and social cognition. Parahippocampal hypoactivation is consistent with effortless eidetic scene processing, in line with the notion of peaks and valleys of neural recruitment in individuals with ASD. These hyperactivation/hypoactivation patterns in daily life tasks provide a circuit-level signature of neural diversity in ASD, a possible intervention target.