Dynamic functional connectivity in the right temporoparietal junction captures variations in male autistic trait expression.

Autistic individuals can experience difficulties with attention reorienting and Theory of Mind (ToM), which are closely associated with anterior and posterior subdivisions of the right temporoparietal junction. While the link between these processes remains unclear, it is likely subserved by a dynamic crosstalk between these two subdivisions. We, therefore, examined the dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) between the anterior and posterior temporoparietal junction, as a biological marker of attention and ToM, to test its contribution to the manifestation of autistic trait expression in Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). Two studies were conducted, exploratory (14 ASC, 15 TD) and replication (29 ASC, 29 TD), using resting-state fMRI data and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repository. Dynamic Independent Component Analysis was performed in both datasets using the CONN toolbox. An additional sliding-window analysis was performed in the replication study to explore different connectivity states (from highly negatively to highly positively correlated). Dynamic FC was reduced in ASC compared to TD adults in both the exploratory and replication datasets and was associated with increased SRS scores (especially in ASC). Regression analyses revealed that decreased SRS autistic expression was predicted by engagement of highly negatively correlated states, while engagement of highly positively correlated states predicted increased expression. These findings provided consistent evidence that the difficulties observed in ASC are associated with altered patterns of dFC between brain regions subserving attention reorienting and ToM processes and may serve as a biomarker of autistic trait expression.

Preliminary psychometric properties of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the emotional outburst questionnaire.

This study focuses on the cross-cultural adaptation of the Emotional Outburst Questionnaire (EOQ) to Brazilian Portuguese and preliminarily assesses its predictive validity. The EOQ evaluates aspects of emotional outbursts (EO), including frequency, duration, intensity, types, associated behaviours, recovery time, triggers, and effectiveness of calming strategies. Two independent translators performed the translation, with subsequent synthesis and analysis revealing that only 33 items (24.81%) required revision. Among these, one item needed partial modification, and two needed total modification. The study demonstrated strong content validity and adaptation in terms of conceptual, idiomatic, and semantic aspects. The EOQ's predictive validity was assessed by analysing the interruption of mental health services in Brazil due to Covid-19 (T1) compared to when services resumed after social distancing measures were lifted (T2). Parents of 25 individuals with developmental disabilities (ASD, DS and ID), with a mean of 11 y/o, mostly male (76%), completed the EOQ. Service interruption during T1 led to increased frequency and duration of severe emotional outbursts reported by caregivers compared to T2 (frequency: p < .001; duration: p = 0.05). This suggests that the EOQ exhibits predictive validity and sensitivity to changes influenced by individual contexts. These findings highlight the EOQ's potential as an outcome measure for intervention development.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Contexts Associated with Emotional Outbursts.

The causal relationship between emotional outbursts and emotion dysregulation is proposed to be heterogeneous, but cultural influences have not been considered despite established cultural differences in emotional processes (e.g., increased motivation to suppress emotions in interdependent cultures). Responses to the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Emotional Outburst Questionnaire were collected from 327 caregivers of young people (6-25 years) with autism spectrum disorder, Down's syndrome, or intellectual disability. Responses were compared to a previous sample of 268 responses from the English version of the questionnaire. The latent factor structure of the contextual items was measurement invariant across both versions. The Brazilian responses were classified into three distinct clusters (Sensory Sensitivity; Perceived Safety; Perceived Unsafety) which considerably overlapped with the English clusters.

Establishing the transdiagnostic contextual pathways of emotional outbursts.

Emotional outbursts or temper outbursts are challenging behaviours commonly experienced by people with neurodevelopmental disorders and people who have experienced childhood adversity, which can negatively impact individuals and their families. Emotional outbursts may manifest in different situations via unique pathways distinguished by context-specific differences in the regulation and expression of emotions. Caregivers (N = 268) of young people (6-25 years) with emotional outbursts completed a bespoke caregiver-report questionnaire. Potential pathways were identified by examining the patterns of antecedents and setting events related to outbursts through factor and cluster analyses. Six contextual factors were derived from the Emotional Outburst Questionnaire. Based on these factors, the responses were classified into three clusters, which may represent potential pathways of emotional outbursts. The three clusters were characterized by the increased likelihood of outbursts: (1) across all setting events and triggers; (2) in safe setting events; (3) in unsafe setting events. These potential pathways may be related to: (1) differences in sensory processing; (2) masking of emotions in unsafe environments; (3) differences in safety perception. This framework supports a transdiagnostic account of emotional outbursts and may facilitate the development of pathway-specific intervention strategies.

Are attention and cognitive control altered by fMRI scanner environment? Evidence from Go/No-go tasks in ADHD.

It is widely assumed that cognitive processes studied in fMRI are equivalent to cognitive processes engaged in the same experimental paradigms in typical behavioral lab settings. Yet very few studies examined this common assumption, and the results have been equivocal. In the current study we directly tested the effects of fMRI environment on sustained attention and response inhibition, using a Go/No-go task, among participants with (n = 42) and without (n = 21) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants with ADHD are characterized by deficits in these cognitive functions and may be particularly susceptible to environmental effects on attention. We found a substantial slowing of reaction time in the scanner for all participants, and a trend for enhanced sustained attention, particularly in ADHD participants with poor performance. We also report limited stability of individual differences in scores obtained in the lab and in the scanner. These findings call for cautious interpretation of neuroimaging task-related results, especially those obtained in clinical populations.

Association between attention, nonverbal intelligence and school performance of school-age children with Autism Spectrum Disorder from a public health context in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction, restricted and repetitive behaviour, interests or activities. Difficulties in a broad spectrum of cognitive skills is often present, including attentional processes and nonverbal intelligence, which might be related to academic difficulties. AIMS: In this study, the association between attentional skills and nonverbal intelligence to school performance of children with ASD was assessed. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: 32 children/adolescents between 8-14 years old, who attended a treatment unit linked to the public health system of São Paulo-Brazil participated in the study. The following instruments were utilized: Cancellation Attention Test; Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices; and School Performance Test. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: After correlation analysis, statistically significant associations were found between attention and nonverbal intelligence with school performance. Regression analysis showed that attention drives school performance irrespective of nonverbal intelligence. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Results evidence the link between attention and school performance in ASD, suggesting that attentional mechanisms may be a promising route to follow in the design of interventions for school improvement of children and adolescents with ASD.

Attention training in children with autism spectrum disorder improves academic performance: A double-blind pilot application of the computerized progressive attentional training program.

Atypical attention has been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with studies pointing to an increase in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder-like symptomatology. Individuals with ASD may also present academic difficulties and it is possible that they face a double-barrier for academic attainment from both core ASD symptomatology and from attention atypicalities, which are directly linked to academic performance. This raises the possibility that academic difficulties in ASD may benefit from cognitive training targeting attention. To test this possibility, we used the computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) intervention in a double-blind, active control with follow-up intervention study in Brazil. The CPAT is a computerized attention training program that was recently piloted with schoolchildren with ASD in the UK. Twenty-six participants (8-14 years) with ASD in the São Paulo's ASD Reference Unit were assigned to either the CPAT (n = 14) or active control group (n = 12), which were matched at baseline. Two 45-min intervention sessions per week were conducted over a 2-month period. School performance, attention, fluid intelligence, and behavior were assessed before, immediately after and 3 months following the intervention. Significant group by time interactions show improvements in math, reading, writing and attention that were maintained at follow-up for the CPAT (but not the active control) group, while parents of children from both groups tended to report behavioral improvements. We conclude that attention training has the potential to reduce obstacles for academic attainment in ASD. Combined with the previous pilot study, the current results point to the generality of the approach, which leads to similar outcomes in different cultural and social contexts. LAY ABSTRACT: Attention difficulties tend to occur in ASD and are linked to academic performance. In this study, we demonstrate that school performance in math, reading and writing in children with ASD can improve following an intervention that trains basic attention skills (the CPAT intervention). The improvements we report are stable and were maintained 3-months following the intervention. This study, which was conducted in a public-health setting in Brazil, extends previous research in schools in the UK pointing to the cross-cultural and cross-settings efficacy of the intervention.

Remember as we empathize. Do brain mechanisms engaged in autobiographical memory retrieval causally affect empathy awareness? A combined TMS and EEG registered report.

Social interactions are partly driven by our ability to empathize-the capacity to share and understand others' inner states. While a growing body of evidence suggests a link between past experiences and empathy, to what degree empathy is dependent on our own previous experiences (autobiographical memories, AMs) is still unclear. Whereas neuroimaging studies have shown wide overlapping brain networks underpinning AM and empathic processes, studies on clinical populations with memory loss have not always shown empathy is impaired. The current transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography study will seek to shed light on this neuropsychological puzzle by testing whether self-perceived empathy is causally linked to AM retrieval. Cortical activity, together with self-rating of empathy, will be recorded for scenarios that echo personal experiences while a brain region critical for AM retrieval will be transiently inhibited using TMS before task performance.

Hierarchical Processing in ASD is Driven by Exaggerated Salience Effects, not Local Bias.

The role of relative salience in processing of hierarchical stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was examined in this study. Participants with ASD and typically developing controls performed a Navon letters task under conditions of global salience, local salience or equal salience of both levels. Results revealed no group differences in level of processing (global or local) and no local bias for ASD. Rather, both groups showed better performance when targets were more salient compared to when distractors were more salient. Importantly, participants with ASD exhibited increased sensitivity to salience at the distractor level. We conclude that inconsistent findings in the context of global/local processing in ASD may stem from such exaggerated salience effects.

The same, but different: Preserved distractor suppression in old age is implemented through an age-specific reactive ventral fronto-parietal network.

Previous studies have shown age-related impairments in the ability to suppress salient distractors. One possibility is that this is mediated by age-related impairments in the recruitment of the left intraparietal sulcus (Left IPS), which has been shown to mediate the suppression of salient distractors in healthy, young participants. Alternatively, this effect may be due to a shift in engagement from proactive control to reactive control, possibly to compensate for age-related impairments in proactive control. Another possibility is that this is due to changes in the functional specificity of brain regions that mediate salience suppression, expressed in changes in spontaneous connectivity of these regions. We assessed these possibilities by having participants engage in a proactive distractor suppression task while in an fMRI scanner. Although we did not find any age-related differences in behavior, the young (N = 15) and older (N = 15) cohorts engaged qualitatively distinctive brain networks to complete the task. Younger participants engaged the predicted proactive control network, including the Left IPS. On the other hand, older participants simultaneously engaged both a proactive and a reactive network, but this was not a consequence of reduced network specificity as resting state functional connectivity was largely comparable in both age groups. Furthermore, improved behavioral performance for older adults was associated with increased resting state functional connectivity between these two networks. Overall, the results of this study suggest that age-related differences in the recruitment of a left lateralized ventral fronto-parietal network likely reflect the specific recruitment of reactive control mechanisms for distractor inhibition.

Fronto-parietal engagement in response inhibition is inversely scaled with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom severity.

BACKGROUND: Impaired response inhibition is one of the most consistent findings in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the underlying brain mechanisms are not clear. This study aimed to underpin atypical inhibition-related brain activation and connectivity patterns in ADHD using a novel Go/No-go task design, and to determine its association with clinical symptoms of the disorder. METHODS: Forty-eight adults with ADHD performed a Go/No-go task in which target frequency was manipulated during functional MRI. Specific inhibition-related brain activation was correlated with ADHD symptom severity, to assess the relationship of individual differences in engagement of inhibition-related brain circuits with the magnitude of every-day functioning impairments. Finally, generalized psychophysical interaction analyses were carried out to examine whether not only engagement but also functional connectivity between regions implicated in response inhibition is related to symptom severity. RESULTS: We found no evidence for the expected parietal modulation by increased demand for inhibition at the group-level results. However, this lack of modulation was mediated by individual differences in ADHD symptom severity - increased engagement of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in inhibition-demanding events was evident in individuals with less severe symptoms but dissipated with increase in symptomatology. Similarly, functional connectivity between the IPS and the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) was elevated under high inhibitory demand conditions, but this effect diminished with increased symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight the importance of IPS engagement in response inhibition and suggest that IPS modulation may be driven by top-down control from the IFG. Moreover, the current findings force the point of treating ADHD as a continuum whereby brain correlates are scaled with severity of the disorder, and point to the potential use of individual differences in the modulation of IPS activation and connectivity as a neuromarker of ADHD.

Correction to: Age-related differences in the attentional white bear.

This article was originally published with errors in the graphs. It has been republished with corrections.

Age-related differences in the attentional white bear.

The cognitive aging literature suggests that aging populations exhibit impairments in the proactive inhibition of attention. Although proactive inhibition is often preceded by the allocation of attention toward the predicted or known spatial location of to-be-ignored stimuli, proactive allocation of attention has not been assessed in aging populations. In this study, an older and younger cohort engaged in the attentional-white-bear paradigm which measures proactive allocation of attention. In this task, on 80% of trials, participants must identify a centrally located letter surrounded by congruent or incongruent flanker letters. The flanker locations are fixed and predictable within each block of the study. On 20% of trials, they must identify which of two dots appear first on the screen. One dot appears in the same location as the flanker, and one appears in an empty location during the flanker task. The typical white-bear effect is that, despite the dots appearing at the same time, participants more often report the dot in the location of the flanker (i.e., the potentially to-be-ignored location) to appear first. The magnitude of this effect is interpreted as the magnitude of attentional allocation prior to inhibition. In Experiment 1, there was no difference in the magnitude of the attentional white bear between younger and aging cohorts. However, when the attentional system was sufficiently taxed by reducing the flanker presentation (Experiments 2a and 2b), age-related differences emerged. In particular, older participants showed a reduced white-bear effect, reflecting a potential impairment in the proactive allocation of attention toward the location of expected distractors.

Delayed reactive distractor suppression in aging populations.

Previous studies have tended to infer that reactive control is intact in aging populations because of evidence that proactive control is impaired and that older participants appear to favor reactive control strategies. However, most of these studies did not compare reactive control in young and older participants directly. In our study, a young (18 to 21 years old) and older (60+ years old) cohort engaged in a task that assesses reactive distractor suppression where participants had to discriminate between an upright and inverted T-shape in the presence of a salient or nonsalient distractor. In previous studies using this paradigm (DiQuattro & Geng, 2011) young participants reactively used the salient distractor as an anticue and performed better (faster reaction time [RT] and higher accuracy) when it was present. It was found that older participants were not able to reactively suppress the salient distractor with a 200-ms display but were able to do so with a 600-ms display. It was concluded that the initiation of reactive suppression is delayed for older participants, but that effective suppression is possible given enough time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Reduced distractor interference in neurotypical adults with high expression of autistic traits irrespective of stimulus type.

Attention atypicality is evident in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its broader phenotype with previous studies suggesting that in some cases participants can be more efficient at ignoring distracting irrelevant information. However, it is not clear to what extent this improved filtering capacity is driven by perceptual atypicality, such as local bias or atypical face processing, which is also sometimes reported in these populations. For instance, better ability to ignore the global aspect of a display could stem from a local perceptual bias rather than from improved distractor inhibition. To test whether distractor suppression per se, is associated with high expression of autistic traits, in the present study a large cohort of neurotypical participants (n = 218), in whom expression of autistic traits was assessed, performed two nonspatial attention selection tasks with different categories of stimuli (global/local and face/scene). Importantly, both tasks involved a conflict with one aspect of the stimuli designated as the target and the other designated as the distractor. Across the two experiments adults with high autistic traits were overall, better able to ignore distractors than adults with low autistic traits, irrespective of the type of perceptual processing involved. These results support the notion that autistic tendencies are associated with increased attention filtering (at least when target and distractor remain constant) which is not dependent on perceptual biases. Thus, future work in the broader autism phenotype should explicitly consider the effect played by attention mechanisms in this population. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1345-1355. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: In the present study, we show that neurotypical adults with high autistic traits are better able to avoid distraction from conspicuous (but completely irrelevant) distractors when told in advance to do so. This ability is not affected by the type of visual input (for instance, whether the distractor is a face or whether small rather than large letters should be reported). This finding could be important in better understanding the way attention is utilized in Autism.

Diametric effects of autism tendencies and psychosis proneness on attention control irrespective of task demands.

Our capacity to attend a target while ignoring irrelevant distraction impacts our ability to successfully interact with our environment. Previous reports have sometimes identified excessive distractor interference in both autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders and in neurotypical individuals with high subclinical expressions of these conditions. Independent of task, we show that the direction of the effect of autism or psychosis traits on the suppression or rejection of a non-target item is diametrical. In Study 1, in which the presence of a salient non-target item hindered performance, higher autism traits were associated with better performance, while higher psychosis traits were associated with worse performance. In Study 2, in which the presence of a salient non-target item facilitated performance, a complete reversal of effects was observed. Future clinical interventions may be informed by the context-specific advantages we observed for the autism and psychosis spectra, and by the need to consider the diametric effects they yield.

Attention Training in Autism as a Potential Approach to Improving Academic Performance: A School-Based Pilot Study.

This study assessed the effectiveness of an attention intervention program (Computerized Progressive Attentional Training; CPAT) in improving academic performance of children with ASD. Fifteen 6-10 year olds with ASD attending a mainstream and a special school were assigned to an experimental (CPAT; n = 8) and active control (computer games; n = 7) group. Children were assessed pre- and post-intervention on measures of behavioural symptoms, cognitive skills and academic performance. The intervention was conducted in school twice a week for 8 weeks. Children in the CPAT group showed cognitive and academic improvements over and above the active control group, while children in both groups showed improvements in behaviour. Results suggest that attention training is a feasible approach to improving academic performance in this population.

Isolating response inhibition in the brain: Parietal versus frontal contribution.

Response inhibition is a main function of cognitive control and its neural substrates have been studied extensively. However, it is still a question whether previous brain imaging investigations were successful in isolating specific response inhibition activation. In the current study we attempted to pinpoint response inhibition in the brain using a Go/No-go task and fMRI, by contrasting rare-No-go trials with prevalent-No-go trials. Although inhibition is required in all No-go trials, task variants with rare-No-go cases (25%) create a prepotent response which elicits a strong demand for inhibition, while task variants with prevalent-No-go cases (75%) require very little inhibition effort. Since the neural activation in this design is extracted solely from No-go trials, differing only in the extent of inhibitory demand, the analysis avoids contamination of the data with motor effects or visual factors. Using this experimental design we highlight the contribution of the parietal cortex (bilaterally) to inhibitory processes, while casting doubts about the specificity of frontal activation in such processes. Future studies are required to verify that bilateral intraparietal sulcus and left temporo-parietal junction activations could be markers of inhibitory control.

Autism Tendencies and Psychosis Proneness Interactively Modulate Saliency Cost.

Atypical responses to salient information are a candidate endophenotype for both autism and psychosis spectrum disorders. The present study investigated the costs and benefits of such atypicalities for saliency-based selection in a large cohort of neurotypical adults in whom both autism and psychosis expressions were assessed. Two experiments found that autism tendencies and psychosis proneness interactively modulated the cost incurred in the presence of a task-irrelevant salient distractor. Specifically, expressions of autism and psychosis had opposing effects on responses to salient information such that the benefits associated with high expressions for autism offset costs associated with high expressions for psychosis. The opposing influences observed on saliency cost may be driven by distinct attentional mechanisms that are differentially affected by expressions for autism and psychosis.

The involvement of the dorsal stream in processing implied actions between paired objects: A TMS study.

Perceiving and selecting the action possibilities (affordances) provided by objects is an important challenge to human vision, and is not limited to single-object scenarios. Xu et al. (2015) identified two effects of implied actions between paired objects on response selection: an inhibitory effect on responses aligned with the passive object in the pair (e.g. a bowl) and an advantage associated with responses aligned with the active objects (e.g. a spoon). The present study investigated the neurocognitive mechanisms behind these effects by examining the involvement of the ventral (vision for perception) and the dorsal (vision for action) visual streams, as defined in Goodale and Milner's (1992) two visual stream theory. Online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied to the left anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) reduced both the inhibitory effect of implied actions on responses aligned with the passive objects and the advantage of those aligned with the active objects, but only when the active objects were contralateral to the stimulation. rTMS to the left lateral occipital areas (LO) did not significantly alter the influence of implied actions. The results reveal that the dorsal visual stream is crucial not only in single-object affordance processing, but also in responding to implied actions between objects.