Hypersensitivity to low intensity fearful faces in autism when fixation is constrained to the eyes

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Dr Amandine Lassalle, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MGH / Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School
• Wednesday 26 April 2017, 10:30-11:30
• Large Meeting Room (groundfloor), Douglas House, 18B, Trumpington Road.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Amber Ruigrok.

Previous studies that showed decreased brain activation in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) viewing expressive faces did not control that participants looked in the eyes. This is problematic because ASD is characterized by abnormal attention to the eyes. Here, we collected fMRI data from 48 participants (27 ASD ) viewing pictures of neutral faces and faces expressing anger, happiness, and fear at low and high intensity, with a fixation cross between the eyes. Group differences in whole brain activity were examined for expressive faces at high and low intensity vs. neutral faces. Group differences in neural activity were also investigated in regions of interest within the social brain, including the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). In response to low intensity fearful faces, ASD participants showed increased activation in the social brain regions, and decreased functional coupling between the amygdala and the vmPFC. This over-arousal to low intensity fear coupled with a lack of emotional regulation capacity could indicate an excitatory/inhibitory imbalance in their socio-affective processing system. This may result in social disengagement and avoidance of eye- contact to handle feelings of over-arousal. Our results also demonstrate the importance of careful control of gaze when investigating emotional processing in ASD .

This talk is part of the ARClub Talks series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• ARClub Talks
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Biology
• Biology
• Cambridge Neuroscience Seminars
• Cambridge talks
• Chris Davis' list
• Department of Psychiatry talks stream
• Featured lists
• Large Meeting Room (groundfloor), Douglas House, 18B, Trumpington Road
• Life Science
• Life Sciences
• Life Sciences
• ME Seminar
• Neuroscience
• Neuroscience Seminars
• Neuroscience Seminars
• Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine
• dh539
• kt532's list
• my_list
• other talks
• personal list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.