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Citalopram Modulates the Neural Systems Involved in Processing of Facial Emotion in ASC but NOT in Neurotypical Controls

Poster Presentation
Saturday, May 4, 2019: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Room: 710 (Palais des congres de Montreal)
N. Wong1,2,3, R. H. Wichers2,4, J. Findon1,2,5, V. Giampietro6, V. Stoencheva1,2,3, C. M. Murphy2,4, C. Ecker7, D. G. Murphy2,3,8,9, G. M. McAlonan1,2,3,9 and E. Daly2,4, (1)Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, (2)Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, (3)Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, (4)Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, and the Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, (5)Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, (6)Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, (7)Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany, (8)Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, (9)MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
Background: The neurobiology underlying the processing of facial emotion is reported to be altered in autism spectrum conditions (ASC), but its neurochemical basis remains unclear1. Abnormalities in serotonin (5HT) systems have been linked to ASC and 5HT is also implicated in emotion control, but to our knowledge no one has examined whether serotonin reuptake inhibition modulates facial emotion processing regions in ASC.

Objectives: Therefore, we examined whether an acute dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram would alter the activity of the amygdala and fusiform regions (known to be involved in facial emotion processing) in adults with and without ASC in a task-based fMRI study.

Methods: A sample of 18 right-handed male adults with ASC (mean age=29.22 years, mean IQ=111.39) and 19 age and IQ matched neurotypical right-handed male adults (mean age=26.79 years, mean IQ=114.95) were included in the current randomised double-blind crossover study. Participants with ASC were diagnosed by consultant psychiatrists according to ICD-10 and all participants completed two MRI scanning sessions. They were given either 20 mg citalopram or placebo before scanning, during which an adapted version of an emotional face-matching task2 was administered. The task consisted of eight experimental blocks and half of them were trials with angry/fearful faces and the other half were with geometric shapes (Figure 1). Participants were asked to match the images in each trial. The preprocessed task-based fMRI data were analysed with a general linear model approach and permutation testing using FSL.

Results: The amygdala was less activated in adults with ASC than controls in the Faces>Shapes contrast during placebo (k=56, MNIxyz=[27,-7,-25]) and citalopram eliminated this difference (Figure 2). This was due to an increase in amygdala activation in adults with ASC but no change in controls post citalopram.

Conclusions: Serotonin reuptake inhibition ‘restores’ a typical pattern of amygdala activation during facial emotion processing in adults with ASC.

References

  1. Deutsch, S. I. & Raffaele, C. T. Understanding facial expressivity in autism spectrum disorder: An inside out review of the biological basis and clinical implications. Prog. Neuro-Psychopharmacology Biol. Psychiatry (2018).
  2. Hariri, A. R., Tessitore, A., Mattay, V. S., Fera, F. & Weinberger, D. R. The amygdala response to emotional stimuli: A comparison of faces and scenes. Neuroimage 17, 317–323 (2002).

See more of: Neurochemistry
See more of: Neurochemistry