Background
Inhibiting prepotent responses is critical to optimal cognitive and behavioral function
across many domains. Several behavioral studies have investigated response inhibition
in autism, and the findings varied according to the components involved in inhibition.
There has been only one published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study
so far on inhibition in autism, which found greater activation in participants with
autism than control participants.
Methods
This study investigated the neural basis of response inhibition in 12 high-functioning
adults with autism and 12 age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched control participants
during a simple response inhibition task and an inhibition task involving working
memory.
Results
In both inhibition tasks, the participants with autism showed less brain activation
than control participants in areas often found to be active in response inhibition
tasks, namely the anterior cingulate cortex. In the more demanding inhibition condition,
involving working memory, the participants with autism showed more activation than
control participants in the premotor areas. In addition to the activation differences,
the participants with autism showed lower levels of synchronization between the inhibition
network (anterior cingulate gyrus, middle cingulate gyrus, and insula) and the right
middle and inferior frontal and right inferior parietal regions.
Conclusions
The results indicate that the inhibition circuitry in the autism group is activated
atypically and is less synchronized, leaving inhibition to be accomplished by strategic
control rather than automatically. At the behavioral level, there was no difference
between the groups.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 30, 2006
Accepted:
August 4,
2006
Received in revised form:
June 28,
2006
Received:
March 3,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
