Neural Correlates of Cognitive Variability in Childhood Autism and Relation to Heterogeneity in Decision-making Dynamics

Overview

Journal Dev Cogn Neurosci

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2020 May 27

PMID 32452464

Citations 10

Authors

T Iuculano

A Padmanabhan

L Chen

J Nicholas

S Mitsven

C de Los Angeles

V Menon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Heterogeneity in cognitive and academic abilities is a prominent feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet little is known about its underlying causes. Here we combine functional brain imaging during numerical problem-solving with hierarchical drift-diffusion models of behavior and standardized measures of numerical abilities to investigate neural mechanisms underlying cognitive variability in children with ASD, and their IQ-matched Typically Developing (TD) peers. Although the two groups showed similar levels of brain activation, the relation to individual abilities differed markedly in ventral temporal-occipital, parietal and prefrontal regions important for numerical cognition: children with ASD showed a positive correlation between functional brain activation and numerical abilities, whereas TD children showed the opposite pattern. Despite similar accuracy and response times, decision thresholds were significantly higher in the ASD group, suggesting greater evidence required for problem-solving. Critically, the relationship between individual abilities and engagement of prefrontal control systems anchored in the anterior insula was differentially moderated by decision threshold in subgroups of children with ASD. Our findings uncover novel cognitive and neural sources of variability in academically-relevant cognitive skills in ASD and suggest that multilevel measures and latent decision-making dynamics can aid in characterization of cognitive variability and heterogeneity in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Citing Articles

Cognitive correlates of math abilities in autism spectrum disorder.

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Atypical cognitive training-induced learning and brain plasticity and their relation to insistence on sameness in children with autism.

Liu J, Chang H, Abrams D, Kang J, Chen L, Rosenberg-Lee M Elife. 2023; 12.

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Atypical cognitive training-induced learning and brain plasticity and their relation to insistence on sameness in children with autism.

Liu J, Chang H, Abrams D, Kang J, Chen L, Rosenberg-Lee M bioRxiv. 2023; .

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The influence of reward anticipation on conflict control in children and adolescents: Evidences from hierarchical drift-diffusion model and event-related potentials.

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