Aberrant Brain Activation During Gaze Processing in Boys With Fragile X Syndrome
Open accessAbstract
CONTEXT: Eye contact is a fundamental component of human social behavior. Individuals with fragile X syndrome (fraX), particularly male subjects, avoid eye contact and display other social deficits. To date (to our knowledge), this behavior in fraX has been studied only in female subjects, who show lesser degrees of gaze aversion. OBJECTIVE: To determine the neural correlates of the perception of direct eye gaze in adolescent boys with fraX using functional magnetic resonance imaging. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Thirteen adolescent boys with fraX, 10 boys with developmental delay, and 13 typically developing control subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Behavioral performance and brain activation during functional magnetic resonance imaging were evaluated during the presentation of faces with eye gaze directed to or averted away from subjects and during successive presentations of stimuli with eye gaze directed toward the subject. Whole-brain and region of interest analyses and regression analyses with task performance were performed. RESULTS: Significantly greater activation was observed in prefrontal cortices in controls compared with boys having fraX, who (in contrast) demonstrated elevated left insula activation to direct eye gaze stimuli. Furthermore, compared with controls, boys with fraX showed greater sensitization in the left amygdala with successive exposure to direct gaze. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with controls, boys with fraX display distinct patterns of brain activation in response to direct eye gaze. These results suggest that aberrant neural processing of direct eye gaze in subjects with fraX may be related to the associated avoidant response.
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Watson, Hoeft, Garrett et al. replicated the finding of greater insula activation (although on the left side) to direct gaze in boys with FXS.
“Watson, Hoeft, Garrett et al. [721] showed this same stimulus set to boys with FXS, and replicated the finding of greater insula activation (although on the left side) to direct gaze.”
From Reward circuitry dysfunction in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes: animal models and clinical findings (2012) · cites this paper as [721]
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References 53 · Cited by 65
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [26]Wechsler D Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition: Administration and Scoring Manual San Antonio, TX Psychological Corp 1991
- [27]Wechsler D Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition: Administration and Scoring Manual San Antonio, TX Psychological Corp 1997
- Authors
- Watson, C., Hoeft, F., Garrett, A. S., Hall, S. S., & Reiss, A. L.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Venue
- Archives of General Psychiatry
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2008-11-03
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1315
- ISSN
- 0003-990X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4445973
- OpenAlex
- W2062679570
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 3.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH-50047, R01MH050047)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Keywords
- fragile X syndrome, gaze processing, eye contact, gaze aversion, social avoidance, prefrontal cortex, insula, amygdala, neural correlates, adolescent boys, social dysfunction, developmental delay
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Amygdala, Attention, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Developmental Disabilities, Cross-Sectional Studies, Dominance, Cerebral, Face, Fixation, Ocular, Fragile X Syndrome, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nonverbal Communication, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Reaction Time, Prefrontal Cortex, Imaging, Three-Dimensional
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