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The brain response to personally familiar faces in autism: findings of fusiform activity and beyond
Abstract
Past functional MRI (FMRI) studies of autism have reported reduced activation in response to the faces of strangers primarily in the 'fusiform face area' (FFA). An alternative and potentially stronger test of FFA function in autism is one that attempts to affect levels of FFA activity using factors believed to modulate function in this brain region, such as face familiarity and the perception of face identity. The current study presented personally meaningful faces, such as mother and co-worker, as well as stranger faces in a rapid event-related FMRI design. Seven autistic and nine normal control adults participated and pressed a button in response to all female faces. A deconvolution analysis revealed significant FFA activity in response to familiar and stranger faces in both autism and normal control groups. Individuals with autism also showed greater fusiform activity in response to familiar faces than stranger faces, as well as the prototypical right hemisphere dominance in response to both types of faces. Normal subjects showed additional activation to familiar faces in the posterior cingulate, amygdala and medial frontal lobes, including the anterior cingulate. Subjects with autism showed a similar, but more limited, network in response to familiar faces. This network included the amygdala and implies that this structure, involved in multiple socio-emotional functions, can be responsive in autism in the presence of stimuli that represent high reward value, such as mother's face. Furthermore, the presence of a distinct network to process familiar faces in autism, one that included limbic structures and was not found in response to the faces of strangers, suggests socio-emotional processing in autism. A potentially noteworthy trend, however, was evidence for a reduction in medial frontal lobe function in the autism group. The main finding of FFA activity in autism stands in contrast to most past FMRI studies of face processing in this disorder. This positive result may reflect the use of personally significant faces that enhanced attention and motivation in the autistic participants. Furthermore, given the proposed role of the FFA in establishing person identity, the use of almost a dozen different personally familiar faces for each participant (totalling 32 non-repeating faces) may have additionally maximized FFA involvement. Therefore, dysfunction in the FFA found in other studies of autism may reflect defects in systems that modulate the FFA, rather than the FFA itself.
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“However, three studies, those of Ogai et al. (2003), Pierce et al. (2004) and Piggot et al. (2004), failed to find any significant differences in amygdala activation for the ASD samples compared to controls.”
From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Pierce et al. (2004)
In the citing paper
“Dalton et al.'s (2005) study, together with Ogai et al. (2003), Pierce et al. (2004) and Piggot et al. (2004) suggest that it is possible to obtain functional activations of the amygdala in individuals with ASD, given appropriate control of the participant (with regard to fixation) and appropriate levels of stimulation (familiar or highly evocative faces).”
From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Pierce et al. (2004)
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“Whereas several functional imaging studies have shown relatively normal function of primary sensory cortices in autism [27 ,28 ,29], studies rarely report normal functional responding in the frontal lobes.”
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InfluentialZaki, J. (2014) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0037679 · Cited by 920
Vision in autism spectrum disorders
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“In the past, we demonstrated that using highly compelling social images, such as images of mothers’ or children’s faces, resulted in much more normal brain activity in ASD than the use of less compelling stimuli, such as the faces of strangers.(39,54) In the same way, the present study used attention-grabbing social s…”
Abnormal functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorders during face processing
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Kennedy, D. P., & Courchesne, E. (2007) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.052 · Cited by 515
“…of joint attention (Williams et al., 2005), episodic memory (Andreasen et al., 1995), viewing personally familiar faces (Gobbini et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004), and self and otherperson reflection (Gusnard et al., 2001; Johnson et al., 2002; Kelley et al., 2002; Kjaer et al., 2002;…”
BackgroundMinicolumnar abnormalities in autism
Casanova, M. F., van Kooten, I. A. J., Switala, A. E., van Engeland, H., Heinsen, H., Steinbusch, H. W. M., Hof, P. R., Trippe, J., Stone, J., & Schmitz, C. (2006) · Acta Neuropathologica · doi:10.1007/s00401-006-0085-5 · Cited by 499
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BEHRMANN, M., THOMAS, C., & HUMPHREYS, K. (2006) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.05.001 · Cited by 469
“The neuroimaging findings, however, are controversial: some studies do, in fact, report fusiform activation in ASD [29,30] with greater signal for familiar than unfamiliar faces [ 30 ], as typically expected (see [31] for discussion of the discrepant results).”
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Cerebro-cerebellar circuits in autism spectrum disorder
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“Activation in left Crus I/II was reported in individuals with ASD during stranger face-processing (Pierce et al., 2004) and during a face-memory task (Koshino et al., 2008), whereas typicallydeveloping participants did not engage this region.”
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“, 1999), face recognition (Pierce et al., 2001; Pierce et al., 2004; Schultz et al., 2000), and theory of mind tasks (Castelli et al.”
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Philip, R. C. M., Dauvermann, M. R., Whalley, H. C., Baynham, K., Lawrie, S. M., & Stanfield, A. C. (2011) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.10.008 · Cited by 422
“Further, when investigatng the effect of face familiarity on brain activation in autism, an mplicit task where the condition of familiarity did not have to be ttended to for successful task completion failed to reveal any diferences between groups (Pierce et al., 2004); whereas when the ask employed required participa…”
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“…the center of the face during our Central Fixation condition, as they were constrained to the center of the eyes in the study by Hadjikhani et al. (2004) and to the center of the screen by Pierce et al. (2004), we found reduced activity to the point of significant deactivation in TD participants.”
Oberman, L. M., Ramachandran, V. S., & Pineda, J. A. (2008) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.01.010 · Cited by 390
“In another study conducted by Pierce et al. (2004), ASD participants were presented with both stranger and familiar faces and showed greater fusiform activity in response to familiar compared to stranger faces.”
InfluentialEnhanced visual functioning in autism: An ALE meta-analysis
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Baron‐Cohen, S., & Belmonte, M. K. (2005) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144137 · Cited by 354
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BackgroundConfigural processing in autism and its relationship to face processing
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“…activation of the FG of autistic individuals when viewing faces; instead strong activation is noted in the inferior temporal gyrus region, the region activated during object discrimination in controls (Grelotti et al., 2005; Hubl et al., 2003; Pierce et al., 2004, 2001; Schultz et al., 2000).”
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“While these results seem contradictory to those reported here, it is important to note that the amygdala is involved in many functions and contains many distinct nuclei, only some of which may be impaired in ASC (Pierce et al., 2004).”
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Hadjikhani, N. K., Joseph, R. M., Snyder, J., & Tager-Flusberg, H. B. (2006) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20283 · Cited by 317
“A number of recent studies have demonstrated FFA activation in ASD subjects [Aylward et al., 2004; Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004; Dalton et al., 2005].”
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“Structural and functional abnormalities in the dorsal and medial prefrontral cortex and premotor cortex—often more evident in right brain areas—have been implicated in social attention impairments and visual-motor-functioning in children with autism [32, 79, 82, 91], schizophrenia [26], and nonsyndromic cleft lip and…”
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A fine-grained analysis of facial expression processing in high-functioning adults with autism
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Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism
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“Since this original study, at least four other fMRI studies have replicated the finding of fusiform gyrus hypoactivation (Critchley et al., 2000; Pierce et al., 2001; Hubl et al., 2003; Pierce et al., 2004).”
BackgroundNeurons in the fusiform gyrus are fewer and smaller in autism
van Kooten, I. A. J., Palmen, S. J. M. C., von Cappeln, P., Steinbusch, H. W. M., Korr, H., Heinsen, H., Hof, P. R., van Engeland, H., & Schmitz, C. (2008) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awn033 · Cited by 263
Effects of intranasal oxytocin on the neural basis of face processing in autism spectrum disorder
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“, 2004), gender discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar face images (Pierce et al., 2004), and in a facial emotion labeling task (Piggot et al.”
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“(Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Just et al., 2007; Just et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004; Ring et al., 1999) though differences in the primary sensory”
BackgroundNeural circuitry of emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorders
Monk, C. S., Weng, S.-J., Wiggins, J. L., Kurapati, N. T., Louro, H. M. C., Carrasco, M., Maslowsky, J., Risi, S., & Lord, C. (2010) · Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience · doi:10.1503/jpn.090085 · Cited by 239
Functional abnormalities of the default network during self- and other-reflection in autism
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“…have provided preliminary support for this possibility, but the implicit nature of the socioemotional tasks used previously (Castelli et al., 2002; Pierce et al., 2004; Kennedy et al., 2006) leaves open the possibility that the autism subjects simply did not engage the socioemotional processes of…”
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Corbett, B. A., Carmean, V., Ravizza, S., Wendelken, C., Henry, M. L., Carter, C., & Rivera, S. M. (2009) · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2008.08.005 · Cited by 227
“The familiarity of the stimulus also appears to be an important consideration in activation of the amygdala in adults with autism (Pierce et al., 2004).”
Decreased GABA B receptors in the cingulate cortex and fusiform gyrus in Autism
Oblak, A. L., Gibbs, T. T., & Blatt, G. J. (2010) · Journal of Neurochemistry · doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2010.06858.x · Cited by 203
“2001) but there are also reports of normal activation of the fusiform gyrus during face processing tasks in autism (Hadjikhani et al. 2004; Pierce et al. 2004; Dalton et al. 2005).”
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Dichter, G. S. (2012) · Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.31887/dcns.2012.14.3/gdichter · Cited by 215
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“Misplaced or reduced medial prefrontal activation during social tasks has been consistently observed (Castelli et al., 2002; Happe et al., 1996; Pierce et al., 2004).”
BackgroundOverreactive brain responses to sensory stimuli in youth with autism spectrum disorders
Green, S. A., Rudie, J. D., Colich, N. L., Wood, J. J., Shirinyan, D., Hernandez, L., Tottenham, N., Dapretto, M., & Bookheimer, S. Y. (2013) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.08.004 · Cited by 207
“There is evidence for functional amygdala abnormalities in ASD, although the evidence is mixed in terms of the direction of effect: early studies showed decreased amygdala activity in ASD23; however, Pierce et al.24 found no group differences in amygdala response to faces when stimuli were salient (e.g., family member…”
BackgroundAtypically diffuse functional connectivity between caudate nuclei and cerebral cortex in autism
Turner, K. C., Frost, L., Linsenbardt, D., McIlroy, J. R., & Müller, R.-A. (2006) · Behavioral and Brain Functions · doi:10.1186/1744-9081-2-34 · Cited by 207
“In a study comparing the perception of familiar (and thus socio-emotionally engaging) faces to unfamiliar faces, Pierce and colleagues [39] found that frontal activity seen in typical adults was absent in autistic subjects, whereas medial parietal activation in precuneus and posterior cingulate was retained.”
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Attention does not modulate neural responses to social stimuli in autism spectrum disorders
Bird, G., Catmur, C., Silani, G., Frith, C., & Frith, U. (2006) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.02.037 · Cited by 215
“However, recent studies have found comparable fusiform gyrus activation between autistic and control participants (Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004).”
Structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging of autism spectrum disorders
Stigler, K. A., McDonald, B. C., Anand, A., Saykin, A. J., & McDougle, C. J. (2011) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2010.11.076 · Cited by 197
Fusiform function in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder is a matter of ‘who’
Pierce, K., & Redcay, E. (2008) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.05.013 · Cited by 196
“Procedures were similar to our previously published report that utilized a rapid event related fMRI design (8).”
InfluentialBrain Region-Specific Glutathione Redox Imbalance in Autism
Chauhan, A., AUDHYA, T. K., & Chauhan, V. P. S. (2012) · Neurochemical Research · doi:10.1007/s11064-012-0775-4 · Cited by 196
“The functional MRI studies also showed hypoactivation of the FG in face perception tasks in autistic subjects [70, 71].”
BackgroundRudie, J. D., Shehzad, Z. E., Hernandez, L. M., Colich, N. L., Bookheimer, S. Y., Iacoboni, M., & Dapretto, M. (2011) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhr171 · Cited by 206
“…or networks such as the amygdala (emotion processing; e.g., Baron-Cohen et al. 1999; Dalton et al. 2005), fusiform gyrus (face processing; e.g., Pierce et al. 2004; Schultz 2005), superior temporal sulcus (biological motion; e.g., Pelphrey and Carter 2008), inferior frontal gyrus (mirror…”
BackgroundThe study of autism as a distributed disorder
Müller, R. (2007) · Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews · doi:10.1002/mrdd.20141 · Cited by 197
“Interestingly however, two studies of face perception in autism [Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004] found normal levels of activity in the fusiform gyrus.”
BackgroundCOURCHESNE, E., REDCAY, E., MORGAN, J. T., & KENNEDY, D. P. (2005) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579405050285 · Cited by 192
“…cortex likely signals the failure of the normal emergence of diversity of highly specialized vertical functional units that are necessary for the refined processing of and learning about information Press normalities in a variety of higher order social ~ Castelli et al., 2002; Pierce et al., 2004 !”
Limited Attentional Bias for Faces in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorders
Katarzyna, C., Fred, V., & Ami, K. (2010) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.194 · Cited by 191
A challenging, unpredictable world for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Gomot, M., & Wicker, B. (2011) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.09.017 · Cited by 217
Abnormal structure or function of the amygdala is a common component of neurodevelopmental disorders
Schumann, C. M., Bauman, M. D., & Amaral, D. G. (2011) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.028 · Cited by 178
The neural processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces: A review and synopsis
Natu, V. S., & O’Toole, A. J. (2011) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02053.x · Cited by 192
“…frontal cortex -posterior cingulate cortex Shah et al. (2001) fMRI Familiarity for face and voice -paracingulate including retrosplenial cortex Pierce et al. (2004) Personally familiar Ͼ unfamiliar faces -FFA (fMRI preference) normal subjects -posterior cingulate -medial frontal lobe…”
BackgroundAutism and the development of face processing
Golarai, G., Kalanit Grill-spector, A., & Reiss, A. L. (2006) · Clinical Neuroscience Research · doi:10.1016/j.cnr.2006.08.001 · Cited by 198
Kleinhans, N. M., Richards, T., Weaver, K., Johnson, L. C., Greenson, J., Dawson, G., & Aylward, E. (2010) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.07.022 · Cited by 187
Aoki, Y. Y., Abe, O., Nippashi, Y., & Yamasue, H. (2013) · Molecular Autism · doi:10.1186/2040-2392-4-25 · Cited by 185
“Accumulated evidence from previous postmortem studies [2] and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies [3,4] provided the hypothesis that the autistic brain is characterized by long-distance underconnectivity [5-9].”
Noriuchi, M., Kikuchi, Y., Yoshiura, T., Kira, R., Shigeto, H., Hara, T., Tobimatsu, S., & Kamio, Y. (2010) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2010.09.051 · Cited by 182
“The ACC is one of the regions that consistently showed structural and functional abnormalities in ASD in previous studies using MRI, positron emission tomography (Haznedar et al., 1997, 2000), and fMRI (Castelli et al., 2002; Hazlett et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004; Kennedy et al., 2006).”
Tardif, C., Lainé, F., Rodriguez, M., & Gepner, B. (2006) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0223-x · Cited by 203
“…and amygdala in subjects with ASD differ from normality (e.g., Hadjikhani et al., 2004) and concluded that it is merely the modulation of activity (Pierce et al., 2004) or the connectivity (Wickelgren, 2005; Wicker et al., submitted) between regions of the so-called 'social brain' (including…”
Van Hecke, A. V., Lebow, J., Bal, E., Lamb, D., Harden, E., Kramer, A., Denver, J., Bazhenova, O., & Porges, S. W. (2009) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01320.x · Cited by 173
“Thus, it would appear, from these findings, that the ‘‘social brain’’ system, or at least its temporal lobe components, of children with autism functions neurotypically, replicating Pierce et al. (2004).”
BackgroundInfluentialPatterns of Visual Attention to Faces and Objects in Autism Spectrum Disorder
McPartland, J. C., Webb, S. J., Keehn, B., & Dawson, G. (2010) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1033-8 · Cited by 190
“Hypoactivation of the fusiform gyrus during face perception (Schultz 2005; Schultz et al. 2000) has also failed to manifest in some samples (Hadjikhani et al. 2004; Hadjikhani et al. 2007; Kleinhans et al. 2008, 2009; Pierce et al. 2004; Pierce and Redcay 2008).”
Gallese, V., Gernsbacher, M. A., Heyes, C. M., Hickok, G. S., & Iacoboni, M. (2011) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691611413392 · Cited by 188
Oblak, A. L., Gibbs, T. T., & Blatt, G. J. (2010) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2010.09.021 · Cited by 175
Neuroanatomical and neurofunctional markers of social cognition in autism spectrum disorder
Patriquin, M. A., DeRamus, T. P., Libero, L. E., Laird, A. R., & Kana, R. K. (2016) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.23288 · Cited by 179
“Preference in eye fixation significantly affects the former, and some studies controlling for fixation [Hadjikhani et al., 2004] or manipulating familiarity [Pierce and Redcay, 2008] suggest that a difference in perceptual strategy in ASD.”
BackgroundAnnaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Johnson, M. H., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2009) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.11.005 · Cited by 173
fMRI evidence of neural abnormalities in the subcortical face processing system in ASD
Kleinhans, N. M., Richards, T. L., Johnson, L. C., Weaver, K. E., Greenson, J., Dawson, G., & Aylward, E. (2010) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.07.037 · Cited by 182
“…of fusiform activation in individuals with ASD through experimental manipulations such as directing participants to fixate on the eye region (Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Hadjikhani et al., 2007) or by including pictures of personally familiar individuals (Pierce et al., 2004; Pierce and Redcay, 2008).”
BackgroundBrumback, A. C., Ellwood, I. T., Kjærby, C., Iafrati, J., Robinson, S., Lee, A. T., Patel, T., Nagaraj, S., Davatolhagh, M. F., & Sohal, V. S. (2017) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2017.213 · Cited by 162
Sacrey, L.-A. R., Armstrong, V. L., Bryson, S. E., & Zwaigenbaum, L. (2014) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.011 · Cited by 174
Jack, A., & A. Pelphrey, K. (2017) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12687 · Cited by 159
Underconnectivity of the superior temporal sulcus predicts emotion recognition deficits in autism
Alaerts, K., Woolley, D. G., Steyaert, J., Di Martino, A., Swinnen, S. P., & Wenderoth, N. (2014) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nst156 · Cited by 149
Autism: The first firm finding = underconnectivity?
Hughes, J. R. (2007) · Epilepsy & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.03.010 · Cited by 156
McCleery, J. P., Akshoomoff, N., Dobkins, K. R., & Carver, L. J. (2009) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.031 · Cited by 155
Human disorders of cortical development: from past to present
Francis, F., Meyer, G., Fallet‐Bianco, C., Moreno, S., Kappeler, C., Socorro, A. C., Tuy, F. P. D., Beldjord, C., & Chelly, J. (2006) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04649.x · Cited by 166
“…lead to an aberrant activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex and the temporoparietal junction, although the extrastriate cortex showed similar levels of activation to those in controls (Baron-Cohen et al., 1999; Castelli et al., 2002; Pierce et al., 2004).”
BackgroundRosset, D. B., Rondan, C., Fonséca, D. D., Santos, A., Assouline, B., & Deruelle, C. (2007) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0465-2 · Cited by 166
Autism-Associated Promoter Variant in MET Impacts Functional and Structural Brain Networks
Rudie, J. D., Hernandez, L. M., Brown, J. A., Beck-Pancer, D., Colich, N. L., Gorrindo, P., Thompson, P. M., Geschwind, D. H., Bookheimer, S. Y., Levitt, P., et al. (2012) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.07.010 · Cited by 142
“…studies that better controlled for eye gaze (such as a fixation cross that directs gaze at the eyes, similar to the one used in the present study) found either no differences or hyperactivation in these regions (Hadjikhani et al., 2004; Pierce et al., 2004; Dalton et al., 2005; Monk et al., 2010).”
ResultWicker, B., Fonlupt, P., Hubert, B., Tardif, C., Gepner, B., & Deruelle, C. (2008) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsn007 · Cited by 148
“Contradictory to previous studies (Pierce et al., 2001; Schultz et al., 2003; but see Pierce et al., 2004; Hadjikhani et al., 2004), regions classically involved in the perceptual analysis of facial features and expression, such as STS and fusiform gyrus, are normally engaged in the autistic group.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSasson, N. J., Pinkham, A. E., Carpenter, K. L. H., & Belger, A. (2010) · Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s11689-010-9068-x · Cited by 151
“…social tasks in individuals with autism (Schultz et al. 2000; Critchley et al. 2000; Pierce et al. 2001); however, this has not always been replicated in tasks of more basic face processing (Dalton et al. 2005; Hadjikhani et al. 2004, 2007) and the processing of familiar faces (Pierce et al. 2004).”
BackgroundImpaired calcium signaling in astrocytes modulates autism spectrum disorder-like behaviors in mice
Wang, Q., Kong, Y., Wu, D., Liu, J., Jie, W., You, Q.-L., Huang, L., Hu, J., Chu, H.-D., Gao, F., et al. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23843-0 · Cited by 152
Autism is characterized by dorsal anterior cingulate hyperactivation during social target detection
Dichter, G. S., Felder, J. N., & Bodfish, J. W. (2009) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsp017 · Cited by 145
Elevated amygdala response to faces and gaze aversion in autism spectrum disorder
Tottenham, N., Hertzig, M. E., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Gilhooly, T., Millner, A. J., & Casey, B. J. (2014) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nst050 · Cited by 144
Impaired social brain network for processing dynamic facial expressions in autism spectrum disorders
Sato, W., Toichi, M., Uono, S., & Kochiyama, T. (2012) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/1471-2202-13-99 · Cited by 142
“Some previous studies [119,120] using the same instruction reported that the FG of individuals with ASD showed normal activation in response to faces.”
ResultHileman, C. M., Henderson, H. A., Mundy, P. C., Newell, L. C., & Jaime, M. (2011) · Developmental Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/87565641.2010.549870 · Cited by 144
“In particular, studies that have enhanced the attention or motivation of participants with autism while attending to faces (eg, Hadjikhani et al, 2004 ; Pierce, Haist, Sedaghat, & Courchesne, 2004 ) have shown evidence of intact face processing in autism.”
BackgroundNeural dynamics of autistic behaviors: Cognitive, emotional, and timing substrates.
Grossberg, S., & Seidman, D. (2006) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.113.3.483 · Cited by 142
“Another study of face perception in adults with autism (Pierce et al., 2001) also found that autistic individuals had reduced or absent activation of the fusiform face gyrus, the inferior occipital cortex, the superior temporal cortex, and the amygdala, and instead activated a variety of individual…”
BackgroundInfluentialNeural Signatures of Autism Spectrum Disorders: Insights into Brain Network Dynamics
Hernandez, L. M., Rudie, J. D., Green, S. A., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Dapretto, M. (2014) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2014.172 · Cited by 147
“In addition, Pierce et al (2004, 2008) found that when participants with ASD viewed faces of personally significant individuals (ie, mother, friend), activity in the fusiform gyrus was comparable to that of controls.”
BackgroundEmotional contagion for pain is intact in autism spectrum disorders
Hadjikhani, N. K., Zürcher, N. R., Rogier, O., Hippolyte, L., Lemonnier, É., Ruest, T., Ward, N., Lassalle, A., Gillberg, N., Billstedt, E., et al. (2014) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/tp.2013.113 · Cited by 152
Richey, J. A., Rittenberg, A., Hughes, L., Damiano, C. R., DiCriscio, A. S., Miller, S., Hanna, E. K., Bodfish, J. W., & Dichter, G. S. (2012) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nss146 · Cited by 146
“A number of studies have further suggested that such deficits encompass responses to social rewards, a pattern hypothesized to reflect diminished interest in and pleasure from social activity in ASDs (Scott-Van Zeeland et al ., 2010; Kohls et al ., 2011; Dichter et al ., 2012c).”
BackgroundInfluentialBookheimer, S. Y., Wang, A. T., Scott, A., Sigman, M., & Dapretto, M. (2008) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s135561770808140x · Cited by 132
Metadata
- Authors
- Pierce, K.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pierce, K.
- ORCID
- Pierce, K.
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2004-11-10
- Volume
- 127
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2703-2716
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- OpenAlex
- W2025319978
- Cited by
- 432
- References
- 91
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 10.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH36840, K01-MH01814, R01MH036840, K01MH001814)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, fusiform face area, face familiarity, face processing, face identity, amygdala, socio-emotional processing, right hemisphere dominance, medial frontal lobe, posterior cingulate cortex
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Amygdala, Autistic Disorder, Brain Mapping, Discrimination, Psychological, Face, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Photography, Temporal Lobe, Case-Control Studies, Recognition, Psychology
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