Study finds adolescents with autism may engage neural control systems differently
UC Davis MIND Institute researchers used brain scans to measure proactive and reactive executive control
2021-03-12
(Press-News.org) A new study by UC Davis MIND Institute researchers suggests that executive control differences in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be the result of a unique approach, rather than an impairment.
Executive control difficulties are common in individuals with autism and are associated with challenges completing tasks and managing time. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, sought to tease out whether these difficulties represent a disruption in proactive executive control (engaged and maintained before a cognitively demanding event) or in reactive executive control (engaged as the event occurs).
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers took brain scans of 141 adolescents and young adults ages 12-22 (64 with autism, 77 neurotypical controls) enrolled in the Cognitive Control in Autism Study. During the scan, the participants completed a task that required them to adapt their behavior.
They were shown a green or red cue, followed by a white arrow (probe) pointing left or right. In half of the trials participants saw a green cue asking them to push a button that matched the direction of the arrow, and in the other half they saw a red cue that asked to push a button that didn't match. Trial order was randomized across the experiment.
"Our brains are seemingly hardwired to be able to respond to a probe with a matching action more easily than doing the opposite," said Andrew Gordon, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the lead author on the paper.
Participants with autism show a unique approach
Analyses of the brain scans during both the cue and probe phases found that participants with autism showed significantly greater brain activity than control participants during the cue in networks associated with proactive control processes, but on the less cognitively demanding trials - the ones with the matching arrow. On the more demanding trials - when the arrow didn't match - activity was similar across groups.
"This suggests that proactive control is not in fact impaired, but that those with autism implement it in a unique - and not necessarily maximally efficient - manner, because they employ proactive control to prepare for the easier versus the harder trials," said Marjorie Solomon, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the senior author on the paper.
The researchers also found that during the arrow probe, connectivity between regions associated with reactive control processes was uniquely enhanced on the more-demanding trials in individuals with autism, but not in typically developing participants.
The results were a little surprising, said Gordon. "Previous research suggests that disruption at a neural level may be responsible for behavioral differences. What we actually show is that participants with autism are simply engaging neural control systems differently to those with neurotypical development."
The researchers noted that the results do not explain why the participants with autism engaged in a different, less efficient strategy during the task than the neurotypical controls participants.
"Our findings suggest that, as in many other areas, those with autism use a unique strategy to complete a task," said Solomon. "But it does leave open the question of why they exert more control during the easier task, and it may have to do with reductions in cognitive flexibility."
Solomon and Gordon added that future research would benefit from manipulating the order in which the stimuli are presented.
"These findings stand in contrast to a lot of prior work on this topic," noted Gordon. "Although no one study can be considered enough evidence to change how we think about executive control in autism, these findings suggest we need to be more nuanced with regard to this subject in the future."
INFORMATION:
Coauthors on the study include Marie K. Krug and Rachel Wulff of UC Davis, Matthew V. Elliot of UC Berkeley, Jeremy Hogeveen of the University of New Mexico and Tyler Lesh and Cameron Carter of the Imaging Research Center in Sacramento.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. R01MH10651802
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-03-12
Quantum dots are manmade nanoparticles of semiconducting material comprising only a few thousand atoms. Because of the small number of atoms, a quantum dot's properties lie between those of single atoms or molecules and bulk material with a huge number of atoms. By changing the nanoparticles' size and shape, it is possible to fine-tune their electronic and optical properties - how electrons bond and move through the material, and how light is absorbed and emitted by it.
Thanks to increasingly refined control of the nanoparticles' size and shape, the number ...
2021-03-12
A machine learning algorithm that predicts suicide attempt recently underwent a prospective trial at the institution where it was developed, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Over the 11 consecutive months concluding in April 2020, predictions ran silently in the background as adult patients were seen at VUMC. The algorithm, dubbed the Vanderbilt Suicide Attempt and Ideation Likelihood (VSAIL) model, uses routine information from electronic health records (EHRs) to calculate 30-day risk of return visits for suicide attempt, and, by extension, suicidal ideation.
Suicide has been on the rise in the U.S. for a generation ...
2021-03-12
What The Study Did: Researchers investigated whether acute COVID-19 symptoms are associated with the probability of subsequent depressive symptoms.
Authors: Roy H. Perlis, M.D., M.Sc., of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3223)
Editor's Note: Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, ...
2021-03-12
What The Study Did: National claims data were used to look at changes in well-child care visits with out-of-pocket costs before and after passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Authors: Paul R. Shafer, Ph.D., of Boston University, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.1248)
Editor's Note: Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding ...
2021-03-12
What The Study Did: Researchers compared rates of psychotropic drug prescriptions during adolescence and young adulthood between individuals born preterm and at term.
Authors: Christine S. Bachmann, M.D., of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.1420)
Editor's Note: Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...
2021-03-12
(Philadelphia, PA) - About 6.2 million Americans suffer from heart failure, an incurable disease with a staggering mortality rate - some 40 percent of patients die within five years of diagnosis. Heart failure is one form of heart disease, for which new therapies are desperately needed.
Now, in new work, scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (LKSOM) at Temple University identify a path to a promising novel therapeutic strategy, taking aim at a molecule in the heart known as G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 (GRK5). In a study published online in the journal Cardiovascular Research, the scientists show in mice that reducing GRK5 levels can significantly improve survival ...
2021-03-12
Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space--but catching them in the act has proven difficult.
Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Their results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal.
"We don't expect the majority of supermassive black holes to be moving; they're usually content to just sit around," says Dominic Pesce, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics who led the study. "They're just so heavy that it's tough to get them going. Consider how much more ...
2021-03-12
Since the pandemic hit, researchers have been uncovering ways COVID-19 impacts other parts of the body, besides the lungs.
Now, for the first time, a visual correlation has been found between the severity of the disease in the lungs using CT scans and the severity of effects on patient's brains, using MRI scans. This research is published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology. It will be presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) and has also been selected as a semifinalist for that organization's Cornelius Dyke Award.
The results show that by looking at lung CT scans of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, physicians may be able to predict just how badly they'll experience other ...
2021-03-12
ITHACA, N.Y. - A new Penn State and Cornell study describes an effort to produce the most comprehensive and high-resolution map yet of chromosome architecture and gene regulation in yeast, a major step toward improving understanding of development, evolution and environmental responses in higher organisms.
Specifically, the study mapped precise binding sites of more than 400 different chromosomal proteins in the yeast genome, most of which regulate the expression of genes.
Yeast cells provide a simple model system with 6,000 genes, most of which are found in other organisms, including humans, making them excellent candidates for studying fundamental genetics and complex biological pathways.
The paper, "A High-Resolution Protein Architecture of the Budding Yeast ...
2021-03-12
Around three times as many males are diagnosed with autism than females. This suggests that biological sex factors may play a role in the development and presentation of autism.
Studies on the neurobiology (brain biology) of males and females with autism have begun to examine brain networks but results have been mixed. This is largely due to the limited availability of data from autistic females.
In response, researchers from END ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Study finds adolescents with autism may engage neural control systems differently
UC Davis MIND Institute researchers used brain scans to measure proactive and reactive executive control
