“Salience network” dysfunction hypothesis in autism spectrum disorders
Open accessAbstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, as well as repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Although most patients with ASD show sensory abnormalities such as hyperesthesia and hypoesthesia, its relation to social cognition has not been well studied. Recently, a salience network (SN) dysfunction hypothesis of ASD has been proposed. This neuroscientific hypothesis might explain how a SN integrating external sensory stimuli with internal states mediates interactions between large‐scale networks involved in externally and internally oriented cognitive processing. In the brain of patients with ASD, areas of the SN, including the anterior insula, become dysfunctional, which results in difficulty in operating social cognition and self‐referential processing. Here we discuss the controversial points and future directions of this hypothesis.
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Salience network dysfunction in ASD may be related to abnormal sensory processing and may secondarily induce social deficits.
“SAN dysfunction in individuals with ASD might be related to abnormal sensory processing and may secondarily induce social deficits [59].”
From Confound Controlled Multimodal Neuroimaging Data Fusion and Its Application to Developmental Disorders (2025) · cites this paper as [59]
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Jao Keehn, R. J., Pueschel, E. B., Gao, Y., Jahedi, A., Alemu, K., Carper, R., Fishman, I., & Müller, R.-A. (2021) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2020.02.007 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
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“SAN and fronto-temporal identified from multimodal MRI were associated with symptom severity while uncorrelated with the covariate FD. SAN dysfunction in individuals with ASD might be related to abnormal sensory processing and may secondarily induce social deficits [59].”
- Authors
- Toyomaki, A., & Murohashi, H.
- Affiliations
- Hokkaido University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Toyomaki, Atsuhito
- ORCID
- Toyomaki, Atsuhito
- Venue
- Japanese Psychological Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-04
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 175-185
- ISSN
- 0021-5368 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-5884
- OpenAlex
- W1575960342
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Japanese Psychological Research (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (23791306)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, salience network, anterior insula, social cognition, self-referential processing, sensory disturbances, hyperesthesia, numbness, large-scale brain networks
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