Hyperconnectivity of Social Perception, Language Processing, and Face Recognition Areas Associated with Greater Deficits in Social Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: The right posterior superior temporal gyrus (rpSTG) is involved in language processing and social perception, particularly the perception of biological motion, and has been found repeatedly to be one of the core neuroanatomical areas with observed differences between individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing controls (TD). Functional connectivity studies have found both hyper- and hypoconnectivity of rpSTG in ASD with various brain regions associated with social cognition.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether the functional connectivity of rpSTG with other brain regions was associated with quantitative measures of social cognition in adolescent males with and without ASD.

Methods: We used resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) data from males age 13-17 with verbal IQ in range of 85 to 115 included in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repository. We focused on male gender and narrow age and IQ range to limit the confounding effects of these variables on the resting state results. We limited our analysis to those subjects with documented total scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale. The final dataset included 29 subjects with ASD [Mean Age(SD) = 15.4 (1.5); Mean VIQ(SD)=100.7(9.5)] and 27 TD subjects [Mean Age(SD)=15.6(1.3);Mean VIQ(SD)=102.5(8.6)]. Seed-to-voxel rsFC analyses were performed using the CONN-fMRI toolbox v18a and SPM12 with the rpSTG as defined by the FSL Harvard-Oxford atlas used as the seed. SRS scores were used as regressors in the analysis, controlling for age. A peak voxel threshold of p<0.001 and a cluster extent threshold of p<0.05 were set for positive and negative associations of connectivity, with significance defined as surviving Family-Wise Error correction at p<0.05.

Results: Greater impairment in social cognition was associated with increased connectivity between the rpSTG and a single cluster centered in the right temporal occipital fusiform cortex, in the region associated with distinguishing faces from other objects. Using this cluster in exploratory analysis as a seed for analysis, the increased connectivity extended to a region including the right planum temporale along with the rpSTG, involving regions associated with auditory processing.

Conclusions: There is evidence for association between greater impairment in social cognition and increased connectivity between regions involved with social perception, language processing, and recognition of faces, functions that are impacted by the core symptoms of ASD.