Fronto-limbic functioning in children and adolescents with and without autism |
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Authors: | Loveland Katherine A Bachevalier Jocelyne Pearson Deborah A Lane David M |
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Affiliation: | Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical School, Houston 77030, United States. katherine.a.loveland@uth.tmc.edu |
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Abstract: | We used neuropsychological tasks to investigate integrity of brain circuits linking orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala (orbitofrontal-amygdala), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (dorsolateral prefrontal-hippocampus), in 138 individuals aged 7-18 years, with and without autism. We predicted that performance on orbitofrontal-amygdala tasks would be poorer in the Autism group compared to the Non-Autism group regardless of intellectual level (verbal mental age, VMA) and that performance on dorsolateral prefrontal-hippocampus tasks would be associated primarily with intellectual level. Predicted differences between Autism and Non-Autism groups on orbitofrontal-amygdala tasks were present but greater in individuals with higher VMA. On dorsolateral prefrontal-hippocampus tasks, poorer performance by the Autism compared to the Non-Autism group was found at all VMA levels. Group differences suggest both brain circuits are impaired in autism, but performance on all tasks is also associated with intellectual level. |
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Keywords: | Autism Neuropsychology Frontal cortex Limbic Spatial working memory Reversal learning |
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