Cited by 530Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismAction Observation and Synchronization

Sentence comprehension in autism: thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity

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Kana, R. K.·2006·Brain

Abstract

Comprehending high-imagery sentences like The number eight when rotated 90 degrees looks like a pair of eyeglasses involves the participation and integration of several cortical regions. The linguistic content must be processed to determine what is to be mentally imaged, and then the mental image must be evaluated and related to the sentence. A theory of cortical underconnectivity in autism predicts that the interregional collaboration required between linguistic and imaginal processing in this task would be underserved in autism. This functional MRI study examined brain activation in 12 participants with autism and 13 age- and IQ-matched control participants while they processed sentences with either high- or low-imagery content. The analysis of functional connectivity among cortical regions showed that the language and spatial centres in the participants with autism were not as well synchronized as in controls. In addition to the functional connectivity differences, there was also a group difference in activation. In the processing of low-imagery sentences (e.g. Addition, subtraction and multiplication are all math skills), the use of imagery is not essential to comprehension. Nevertheless, the autism group activated parietal and occipital brain regions associated with imagery for comprehending both the low and high-imagery sentences, suggesting that they were using mental imagery in both conditions. In contrast, the control group showed imagery-related activation primarily in the high-imagery condition. The findings provide further evidence of underintegration of language and imagery in autism (and hence expand the understanding of underconnectivity) but also show that people with autism are more reliant on visualization to support language comprehension.

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  • The data suggest that brain connectivity is likely impaired in most regions, as shown by alterations of all corpus callosum subdivisions and supported by functional studies.

    “These data suggest that brain connectivity is likely to be impaired in most regions as evidenced by alterations of all CC subdivisions and is supported by several functional studies implicating multiple cortical including frontal, and parietal regions (17, 19, 20, 51).”

    From A Meta-Analysis of the Corpus Callosum in Autism (2009) · cites this paper as [51]

  • Studies of FC in ASD have found evidence of reduced long-range FC in various cortical circuits.

    “Studies of FC in ASD have found evidence of reduced long-range FC in various cortical circuits (14-24).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Bertone A, Faubert J. Motion sensitivity of first and second-order translating, expanding/contracting and rotation patterns. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1999; 40: 2245.
  2. Minshew NJ, Goldstein G. Autism as a disorder of complex information processing. Mental Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 1998; 4: 129-36.

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Authors
Kana, R. K.
Affiliations
Carnegie Mellon University (US)
Corresponding author
Kana, R. K.
Venue
Brain
Published
2006-09-01
Volume
129
Issue
9
Pages
2484-2493
ISSN
  • 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2156
OpenAlex
W2127810520
Cited by
530
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 39 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 47
FWCI
13.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Brain (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • KiltHub Repository (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • KiltHub Repository
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 35469)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD035469, HD35469, U19HD035469)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, sentence comprehension, mental imagery, functional connectivity, language processing, spatial processing, parietal activation, visualization
MeSH terms
Adult, Autistic Disorder, Brain, Cerebral Cortex, Corpus Callosum, Humans, Imagination, Language, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nerve Net, Occipital Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Thinking, Comprehension

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