Background
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) involve impairments in cognitive control. In typical
development (TYP), neural systems underlying cognitive control undergo substantial
maturation during adolescence. Development is delayed in adolescents with ASD. Little
is known about the neural substrates of this delay.
Methods
We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a cognitive control
task involving overcoming a prepotent response tendency to examine the development
of cognitive control in young (ages 12–15; n = 13 with ASD and n = 13 with TYP) and older (ages 16–18; n = 14 with ASD and n = 14 with TYP) adolescents with whole-brain voxelwise univariate and task-related
functional connectivity analyses.
Results
Older ASD and TYP showed reduced activation in sensory and premotor areas relative
to younger ones. The older ASD group showed reduced left parietal activation relative
to TYP. Functional connectivity analyses showed a significant age by group interaction
with the older ASD group exhibiting increased functional connectivity strength between
the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, bilaterally.
This functional connectivity strength was related to task performance in ASD, whereas
that between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex (Brodmann areas 9
and 40) was related to task performance in TYP.
Conclusions
Adolescents with ASD rely more on reactive cognitive control, involving last-minute
conflict detection and control implementation by the anterior cingulate cortex and
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, versus proactive cognitive control requiring processing
by dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex. Findings await replication
in larger longitudinal studies that examine their functional consequences and amenability
to intervention.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 28, 2013
Accepted:
August 5,
2013
Received in revised form:
July 31,
2013
Received:
August 17,
2012
Identification
Copyright
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