Abnormal functional activation and maturation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and cerebellum during temporal discounting in autism spectrum disorder

Murphy, C. M., Christakou, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4267-3436, Giampietro, V., Brammer, M., Daly, E. M., Ecker, C., Johnston, P., Spain, D., Robertson, D. M., MRC AIMS, C., Murphy, D. G. and Rubia, K. (2017) Abnormal functional activation and maturation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and cerebellum during temporal discounting in autism spectrum disorder. Human Brain Mapping, 38 (11). pp. 5343-5355. ISSN 1065-9471 doi: 10.1002/hbm.23718

Abstract/Summary

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor decision-making and temporal foresight. This may adversely impact on their everyday life, mental health, and productivity. However, the neural substrates underlying poor choice behavior in people with ASD, or its' neurofunctional development from childhood to adulthood, are unknown. Despite evidence of atypical structural brain development in ASD, investigation of functional brain maturation in people with ASD is lacking. This cross-sectional developmental fMRI study investigated the neural substrates underlying performance on a temporal discounting (TD) task in 38 healthy (11–35 years old) male adolescents and adults with ASD and 40 age, sex, and IQ-matched typically developing healthy controls. Most importantly, we assessed group differences in the neurofunctional maturation of TD across childhood and adulthood. Males with ASD had significantly poorer task performance and significantly lower brain activation in typical regions that mediate TD for delayed choices, in predominantly right hemispheric regions of ventrolateral/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, striatolimbic regions, and cerebellum. Importantly, differential activation in ventromedial frontal cortex and cerebellum was associated with abnormal functional brain maturation; controls, in contrast to people with ASD, showed progressively increasing activation with increasing age in these regions; which furthermore was associated with performance measures and clinical ASD measures (stereotyped/restricted interests). Findings provide first cross-sectional evidence that reduced activation of TD mediating brain regions in people with ASD during TD is associated with abnormal functional brain development in these regions between childhood and adulthood, and this is related to poor task performance and clinical measures of ASD.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/71185
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Development Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Publisher	Wiley
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item