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fMRI Activation of the Fusiform Gyrus and Amygdala to Cartoon Characters but not to Faces in a boy with Autism. David J. Grelottia , Ami J. Klina, Isabel Gauthierb, Pawel Skudlarskic, Donald J. Cohena, John C. Gored, Fred R. Volkmara, Robert T. Schultz. Laura Kwon. What is Autism?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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David J. Grelottia, Ami J. Klina, Isabel Gauthierb, Pawel Skudlarskic, Donald J. Cohena, John C. Gored, Fred R. Volkmara, Robert T. Schultz
fMRI Activation of the Fusiform Gyrus and Amygdala to Cartoon Characters but not to Faces in a boy with Autism
Laura Kwon
What is Autism?
Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) social impairments deficits in language development stereotypic or repetitive behaviors
Face perception deficit Relates to social impairments
Different way of perceving faces Hypoactivation in the Amygdala and
Fusiform Face Area (FFA)
• Autistic person - Smaller and more densely packed neurons
• Damage in Amygdala - Deficits in emotion perception
Fusiform Face Area (FFA) Amygdala
• Composed of…- Middle fusiform gyrus (FG)- Occipito-temporal visual cortical area
• Most activated by the human face• Damage in FFA - Prosopagnosia
Hypothesis
FFA & Amygdala of autistic individuals would respond to their special interests despite a lack of activation to faces
Methods
Participants DD (Autism+Digimon) – 11 yrs
- Expertise in Digimon CC (Autism) – 17 yrs
- No expertise/ interest in digimon/ pokemon TDC (No Autism+Pokemon) – 10 yrs
- Expertise in Pokemon, but knew of digimon
Procedure1. Forced-choice verification task (Behavioural Response)2. Neuroimaging task (fMRI)
Method - Neuroimaging task
2 sessions (E1) DD & CC
- Unfamiliar faces
- Digimon
- Nonface objects (E2) DD & TDC
- Familiar faces
- Unfamiliar faces
- Digimon
- Nonface objects
( )( )3.9s
0.3s
Stimulus Stimulus Stimulus Stimulus Stimulus(( ((
12s
1 Block
Same or Different
Results - DD
FFA- No activation to
unfamiliar faces
- Significant activation to Digimon
Amygdala- Showed bilateral
activation for Digimon
Results
DD; FFA & Amygdala responded more to Digimon than to faces or objects
Neither TDC nor CC had greater activation to Digimon than objects or faces
Discussion
FFA “Face Module” damaged Expertise
Amygdala DD found Digimon emotionally meaningful (more
salient and rewarding than human face)
Conclusion
FFA and Amygdala of Autistic individuals function normally under certain conditions
Personal Opinion
Strengths Real life application Various approach
Limitations Subjects – small #, not well matched Technical difficulty – part of results lost due to malfunction
of the devices Next Step?
Other special interest or expertise? Explore possible treatment for autism?
Thank you for listening!
Questions?