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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on March 3, 2008
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2008 3(2):135-143; doi:10.1093/scan/nsn007
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Abnormal cerebral effective connectivity during explicit emotional processing in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Bruno Wicker1, Pierre Fonlupt2, Bénédicte Hubert1, Carole Tardif3, Bruno Gepner4 and Christine Deruelle1

1Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de la Méditerranée, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, 2Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM). Unité 280, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, F69000, Lyon, 3Centre for Research in Psychology of Cognition, Language and Emotion, Université de Provence, 13621 Cedex 1 Aix-en-Provence, and 4Hôpital Montperrin and Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR6057 Aix-en-Provence, France

Several recent studies suggest that autism may result from abnormal communication between brain regions. We directly assessed this hypothesis by testing the presence of abnormalities in a model of the functional cerebral network engaged during explicit emotion processing in adults with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. Comparison of structural equation models revealed abnormal patterns of effective connectivity, with the prefrontal cortex as a key site of dysfunction. These findings provide evidence that abnormal long-range connectivity between structures of the ‘social brain’ could explain the socio-emotional troubles that characterize the autistic pathology.

Keywords: emotion; autism; prefrontal; effective connectivity; fMRI

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Bruno Wicker, Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de la Méditerranée, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France. E-mail: wicker{at}incm.cnrs-mrs.fr

Received February 1, 2008. Accepted February 1, 2008.


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