TITLE:
Autism, social cognition and superior temporal sulcus
AUTHORS:
Monica Zilbovicius, Ana Saitovitch, Traian Popa, Elza Rechtman, Lafina Diamandis, Nadia Chabane, Francis Brunelle, Yves Samson, Nathalie Boddaert
KEYWORDS:
Brain Imaging; Social Cognition; Autism; STS
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.3 No.2A,
April
17,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Results on brain imaging studies have led to a
better understanding of the neural circuits involved in social cognition and
its implication in autism spectrum disorders(ASD).
It has been shown that the superior temporal sulcus(STS)is highly implicated in social processes, from perception of socially relevant
information, such as body movements or eye gaze, to more complex social
cognition processes. Furthermore, several multimodal brain imaging results
point to anatomo-functional abnormalities in the STS in both children and adults with ASD. These results are highly consistent with social impairments
in ASD, among which eye gaze perception is particularly relevant. Gaze
abnormalities can now be objectively measured using eye-tracking methodology,
leading to a better characterization of social perception impairments in autism. Moreover, these gaze abnormalities have been associated with STS abnormalities in ASD. Based on these results, our
hypothesis is that anatomo-functional anomalies in the STS occurring early
across brain development could constitute the first step in the cascade of
neural dysfunction underlying autism. In the present work, we’ll review recent data of STS contribution to normal social cognition and it’s implication in autism.