Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Neural Circuitry of Autism

  • Review
  • Published:
Neurotoxicity Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by deficits in social emotional, and language domains, as well as repetitive restrictive behaviors. The vast heterogeneity of the clinical and behavioral symptoms has made it rather difficult to delineate the neural circuitry affiliated with these domains of dysfunction. The current review aims at broadly outlining the latest research into the neurobiology and neural circuitry underlying the core domains of deficits in autism. We further discuss new avenues of research that can further our understanding of the dimensions of this complex disorder.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adolphs R (2010) What does the amygdala contribute to social cognition? Ann N Y Acad Sci 1191:42–61

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adolphs R, Tranel D, Damasio H, Damasio A (1994) Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human amygdala. Nature 372:669–672

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adolphs R, Sears L, Piven J (2001) Abnormal processing of social information from faces in autism. J Cogn Neurosci 13:232–240

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adolphs R, Gosselin F, Buchanan TW, Tranel D, Schyns P, Damasio AR (2005) A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage. Nature 433:68–72

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adolphs R, Spezio ML, Parlier M, Piven J (2008) Distinct face-processing strategies in parents of autistic children. Curr Biol 18:1090–1093

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Akechi H, Senju A, Kikuchi Y, Tojo Y, Osanai H, Hasegawa T (2010) The effect of gaze direction on the processing of facial expressions in children with autism spectrum disorder: an ERP study. Neuropsychologia 48:2841–2851

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Allison T, McCarthy G, Nobre A, Puce A, Belger A (1994) Human extrastriate visual cortex and the perception of faces, words, numbers, and colors. Cereb Cortex 4:544–554

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Allman JM, Hakeem A, Erwin JM, Nimchinsky E, Hof P (2001) The anterior cingulate cortex. The evolution of an interface between emotion and cognition. Ann N Y Acad Sci 935:107–117

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Amaral DG, Corbett BA (2003) The amygdala, autism and anxiety. Novartis Found Symp 251:177–187; discussion 187–197, 281–197

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Amaral DG, Bauman MD, Schumann CM (2003) The amygdala and autism: implications from non-human primate studies. Genes Brain Behav 2:295–302

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson AK, Phelps EA (2000) Expression without recognition: contributions of the human amygdala to emotional communication. Psychol Sci 11:106–111

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson AK, Spencer DD, Fulbright RK, Phelps EA (2000) Contribution of the anteromedial temporal lobes to the evaluation of facial emotion. Neuropsychology 14:526–536

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ashwin C, Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, O’Riordan M, Bullmore ET (2006) Differential activation of the amygdala and the ‘social brain’ during fearful face-processing in Asperger syndrome. Neuropsychologia 45:2–14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bachevalier J, Loveland KA (2006) The orbitofrontal-amygdala circuit and self-regulation of social–emotional behavior in autism. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 30:97–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey A, Le Couteur A, Gottesman I, Bolton P, Simonoff E, Yuzda E et al (1995) Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study. Psychol Med 25:63–77

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barbas H (2007) Flow of information for emotions through temporal and orbitofrontal pathways. J Anat 211:237–249

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen S, Ring H, Moriarty J, Schmitz B, Costa D, Ell P (1994) Recognition of mental state terms. Clinical findings in children with autism and a functional neuroimaging study of normal adults. Br J Psychiatry 165:640–649

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen S, Jolliffe T, Mortimore C, Robertson M (1997) Another advanced test of theory of mind: evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 38:813–822

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen S, Ring HA, Wheelwright S, Bullmore ET, Brammer MJ, Simmons A et al (1999) Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brain: an fMRI study. Eur J Neurosci 11:1891–1898

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman M, Kemper TL (1985) Histoanatomic observations of the brain in early infantile autism. Neurology 35:866–874

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Breiter HC, Etcoff NL, Whalen PJ, Kennedy WA, Rauch SL, Buckner RL et al (1996) Response and habituation of the human amygdala during visual processing of facial expression. Neuron 17:875–887

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bryson SE, Rogers SJ, Fombonne E (2003) Autism spectrum disorders: early detection, intervention, education, and psychopharmacological management. Can J Psychiatry 48:506–516

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Calder AJ, Young AW, Rowland D, Perrett DI, Hodges JR, Etcoff NL (1996) Facial emotion recognition after bilateral amygdala damage: differentially severe impairment of fear. Cogn Neuropsychol 13:699–745

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ceponiene R, Lepistö T, Shestakova A, Vanhala R, Alku P, Näätänen R et al (2003) Speech–sound-selective auditory impairment in children with autism: they can perceive but do not attend. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:5567–5572

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Conturo TE, Williams DL, Smith CD, Gultepe E, Akbudak E, Minshew NJ (2008) Neuronal fiber pathway abnormalities in autism: an initial MRI diffusion tensor tracking study of hippocampo-fusiform and amygdalo-fusiform pathways. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 14:933–946

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Courchesne E, Lincoln AJ, Kilman BA, Galambos R (1985) Event-related brain potential correlates of the processing of novel visual and auditory information in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 15:55–76

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Courchesne E, Lincoln AJ, Yeung-Courchesne R, Elmasian R, Grillon C (1989) Pathophysiologic findings in nonretarded autism and receptive developmental language disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 19:1–17

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Critchley HD, Daly EM, Bullmore ET, Williams SC, Van Amelsvoort T, Robertson DM et al (2000) The functional neuroanatomy of social behaviour: changes in cerebral blood flow when people with autistic disorder process facial expressions. Brain 123(Pt 11):2203–2212

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton KM, Kalin NH, Grist TM, Davidson RJ (2005a) Neural-cardiac coupling in threat-evoked anxiety. J Cogn Neurosci 17:969–980

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton KM, Nacewicz BM, Johnstone T, Schaefer HS, Gernsbacher MA, Goldsmith HH et al (2005b) Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nat Neurosci 8:519–526

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson G, Zanolli K (2003) Early intervention and brain plasticity in autism. Novartis Found Symp 251:266–274; discussion 274–280, 281–297

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson G, Carver L, Meltzoff AN, Panagiotides H, McPartland J, Webb SJ (2002) Neural correlates of face and object recognition in young children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, and typical development. Child Dev 73:700–717

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson G, Webb SJ, Carver L, Panagiotides H, McPartland J (2004) Young children with autism show atypical brain responses to fearful versus neutral facial expressions of emotion. Dev Sci 7:340–359

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dichter GS, Belger A (2007) Social stimuli interfere with cognitive control in autism. NeuroImage 35:1219–1230

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dichter GS, Felder JN, Bodfish JW (2009) Autism is characterized by dorsal anterior cingulate hyperactivation during social target detection. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 4:215–226

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan CC, Barry RJ, Connolly JF, Fischer C, Michie PT, Naatanen R et al (2009) Event-related potentials in clinical research: guidelines for eliciting, recording, and quantifying mismatch negativity, P300, and N400. Clin Neurophysiol 120:1883–1908

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn MA, Gomes H, Gravel J (2008) Mismatch negativity in children with autism and typical development. J Autism Dev Disord 38:52–71

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dziobek I, Bahnemann M, Convit A, Heekeren HR (2010) The role of the fusiform–amygdala system in the pathophysiology of autism. Arch Gen Psychiatry 67:397–405

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eigsti IM, Shapiro T (2003) A systems neuroscience approach to autism: biological, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 9:205–215

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Emery NJ, Amaral DG (1999) The role of the amygdala in primate social cognition. In: Nadel L, Lane RD (eds) Cognitive neuroscience of emotion. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 156–191

    Google Scholar 

  • Emery NJ, Capitanio JP, Mason WA, Machado CJ, Mendoza SP, Amaral DG (2001) The effects of bilateral lesions of the amygdala on dyadic social interactions in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Behav Neurosci 115:515–544

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferri R, Elia M, Agarwal N, Lanuzza B, Musumeci SA, Pennisi G (2003) The mismatch negativity and the P3a components of the auditory event-related potentials in autistic low-functioning subjects. Clin Neurophysiol 114:1671–1680

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Folstein SE, Rosen-Sheidley B (2001) Genetics of autism: complex aetiology for a heterogeneous disorder. Nat Rev Genet 2:943–955

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Freitag CM (2007) The genetics of autistic disorders and its clinical relevance: a review of the literature. Mol Psychiatry 12:2–22

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ganz ML (2007) The lifetime distribution of the incremental societal costs of autism. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 161:343–349

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind DH (2009) Advances in autism. Annu Rev Med 60:367–380

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind DH, Levitt P (2007) Autism spectrum disorders: developmental disconnection syndromes. Curr Opin Neurobiol 17:103–111

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gomot M, Giard MH, Adrien JL, Barthelemy C, Bruneau N (2002) Hypersensitivity to acoustic change in children with autism: electrophysiological evidence of left frontal cortex dysfunctioning. Psychophysiology 39:577–584

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greimel E, Schulte-Ruther M, Kircher T, Kamp-Becker I, Remschmidt H, Fink GR et al (2010) Neural mechanisms of empathy in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and their fathers. NeuroImage 49:1055–1065

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grice SJ, Halit H, Farroni T, Baron-Cohen S, Bolton P, Johnson MH (2005) Neural correlates of eye-gaze detection in young children with autism. Cortex 41:342–353

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gunji A, Inagaki M, Inoue Y, Takeshima Y, Kaga M (2009) Event-related potentials of self-face recognition in children with pervasive developmental disorders. Brain Dev 31:139–147

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta AR, State MW (2007) Recent advances in the genetics of autism. Biol Psychiatry 61:429–437

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haxby JV, Hoffman EA, Gobbini MI (2000) The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends Cogn Sci 4:223–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hazlett HC, Poe MD, Mosconi M, Gerig G, Gimple RS, Piven J (2010) Enlargement of subcortical structures in two year olds with autism: an MRI study

  • Haznedar MM, Buchsbaum MS, Wei TC, Hof PR, Cartwright C, Bienstock CA et al (2000) Limbic circuitry in patients with autism spectrum disorders studied with positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Am J Psychiatry 157:1994–2001

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Herbert MR, Ziegler DA, Deutsch CK, O’Brien LM, Lange N, Bakardjiev A et al (2003) Dissociations of cerebral cortex, subcortical and cerebral white matter volumes in autistic boys. Brain 126:1182–1192

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hill EL (2004a) Evaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism. Dev Rev 24:189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill EL (2004b) Executive dysfunction in autism. Trends Cogn Sci 8:26–32

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson RP, Ouston J, Lee A (1988) What’s in a face? The case of autism. Br J Psychol 79(Pt 4):441–453

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hof PR, Knabe R, Bovier P, Bouras C (1991) Neuropathological observations in a case of autism presenting with self-injury behavior. Acta Neuropathol 82:321–326

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Howard MA, Cowell PE, Boucher J, Broks P, Mayes A, Farrant A et al (2000) Convergent neuroanatomical and behavioural evidence of an amygdala hypothesis of autism. Neuroreport 11:2931–2935

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdlicka M, Dudova I, Beranova I, Lisy J, Belsan T, Neuwirth J et al (2005) Subtypes of autism by cluster analysis based on structural MRI data. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 14:138–144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubl D, Bolte S, Feineis-Matthews S, Lanfermann H, Federspiel A, Strik W et al (2003) Functional imbalance of visual pathways indicates alternative face processing strategies in autism. Neurology 61:1232–1237

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jurado MB, Rosselli M (2007) The elusive nature of executive functions: a review of our current understanding. Neuropsychol Rev 17:213–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Just MA, Cherkassky VL, Keller TA, Minshew NJ (2004) Cortical activation and synchronization during sentence comprehension in high-functioning autism: evidence of underconnectivity. Brain 127:1811–1821

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Just MA, Cherkassky VL, Keller TA, Kana RK, Minshew NJ (2007) Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: evidence from an FMRI study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cereb Cortex 17:951–961

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kana RK, Keller TA, Cherkassky VL, Minshew NJ, Just MA (2006) Sentence comprehension in autism: thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity. Brain 129:2484–2493

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kana RK, Keller TA, Minshew NJ, Just MA (2007) Inhibitory control in high-functioning autism: decreased activation and underconnectivity in inhibition networks. Biol Psychiatry 62:198–206

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kanner L (1943) Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nerv Child 2:217–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanner L, Eisenberg L (1957) Early infantile autism, 1943–1955. Psychiatr Res Rep 7:55–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher N, Yovel G (2006) The fusiform face area: a cortical region specialized for the perception of faces. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 361:2109–2128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher N, McDermott J, Chun MM (1997) The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. J Neurosci 17:4302–4311

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kemner C, van der Gaag RJ, Verbaten M, van Engeland H (1999) ERP differences among subtypes of pervasive developmental disorders. Biol Psychiatry 46:781–789

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinhans NM, Johnson LC, Richards T, Mahurin R, Greenson J, Dawson G et al (2009) Reduced neural habituation in the amygdala and social impairments in autism spectrum disorders. Am J Psychiatry 166:467–475

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinhans NM, Richards T, Johnson LC, Weaver KE, Greenson J, Dawson G et al (2010a) fMRI evidence of neural abnormalities in the subcortical face processing system in ASD. Neuroimage 54:697–704

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinhans NM, Richards T, Weaver K, Johnson LC, Greenson J, Dawson G et al (2010b) Association between amygdala response to emotional faces and social anxiety in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia 48:3665–3670

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klin A, Jones W, Schultz R, Volkmar F, Cohen D (2002a) Defining and quantifying the social phenotype in autism. Am J Psychiatry 159:895–908

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klin A, Jones W, Schultz R, Volkmar F, Cohen D (2002b) Visual fixation patterns during viewing of naturalistic social situations as predictors of social competence in individuals with autism. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59:809–816

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kling AS, Brothers LA (1992) The amygdala and social behavior. In: Aggleton JP (ed) The amygdala: neurobiological aspects of emotion, memory and mental dysfunction. Wiley-Liss, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluver H, Bucy PC (1937) “Psychic blindness” and other symptoms following bilateral temporal lobectomy in rhesus monkeys. Am J Physiol 119:352–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Kylliainen A, Hietanen JK (2006) Skin conductance responses to another person’s gaze in children with autism. J Autism Dev Disord 36:517–525

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez BR, Lincoln AJ, Ozonoff S, Lai Z (2005) Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of autistic disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 35:445–460

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Losh M, Piven J (2007) Social-cognition and the broad autism phenotype: identifying genetically meaningful phenotypes. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48:105–112

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Losh M, Childress D, Lam K, Piven J (2008a) Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: a comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. Am J Med Genet B 147B:424–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losh M, Sullivan PF, Trembath D, Piven J (2008b) Current developments in the genetics of autism: from phenome to genome. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 67:829–837

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Losh M, Adolphs R, Poe MD, Couture S, Penn D, Baranek GT et al (2009) Neuropsychological profile of autism and the broad autism phenotype. Arch Gen Psychiatry 66:518–526

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loveland KA, Tunali-Kotoski B, Chen YR, Ortegon J, Pearson DA, Brelsford KA et al (1997) Emotion recognition in autism: verbal and nonverbal information. Dev Psychopathol 9:579–593

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy G (1999) Physiological studies of face processing in humans. In: Gazzaniga MS (ed) The new cognitive neurosciences, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 393–410

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy G, Puce A, Gore JC, Allison T (1997) Face-specific processing in the human fusiform gyrus. J Cogn Neurosci 9:605–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCleery JP, Akshoomoff N, Dobkins KR, Carver LJ (2009) Atypical face versus object processing and hemispheric asymmetries in 10-month-old infants at risk for autism. Biol Psychiatry 66:950–957

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McPartland J, Dawson G, Webb SJ, Panagiotides H, Carver LJ (2004) Event-related brain potentials reveal anomalies in temporal processing of faces in autism spectrum disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 45:1235–1245

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morris JS, Frith CD, Perrett DI, Rowland D, Young AW, Calder AJ et al (1996) A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions. Nature 383:812–815

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mundy P (2003) Annotation: the neural basis of social impairments in autism: the role of the dorsal medial-frontal cortex and anterior cingulate system. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 44:793–809

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Naatanen R, Escera C (2000) Mismatch negativity: clinical and other applications. Audiol Neurootol 5:105–110

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oades RD, Walker MK, Geffen LB, Stern LM (1988) Event-related potentials in autistic and healthy children on an auditory choice reaction time task. Int J Psychophysiol 6:25–37

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oram Cardy JE, Flagg EJ, Roberts W, Roberts TP (2005) Delayed mismatch field for speech and non-speech sounds in children with autism. Neuroreport 16:521–525

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff S (1995) Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin card sorting test in studies of autism. Neuropsychology 9:491–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patten E, Watson LR (2010) Interventions targeting attention in young children with autism. Am J Speech Lang Pathol

  • Pelphrey KA, Sasson NJ, Reznick JS, Paul G, Goldman BD, Piven J (2002) Visual scanning of faces in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 32:249–261

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pelphrey K, Adolphs R, Morris JP (2004) Neuroanatomical substrates of social cognition dysfunction in autism. Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 10:259–271

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Picton TW, Taylor MJ (2007) Electrophysiological evaluation of human brain development. Dev Neuropsychol 31:249–278

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce K, Muller RA, Ambrose J, Allen G, Courchesne E (2001) Face processing occurs outside the fusiform ‘face area’ in autism: evidence from functional MRI. Brain 124:2059–2073

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Piven J (2001) The broad autism phenotype: a complementary strategy for molecular genetic studies of autism. Am J Med Genet 105:34–35

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Piven J (2002) The genetics of personality: the example of the broad autism phenotype. In: Benjamin J, Ebstein R, Belmaker R (eds) Molecular genetics and the human personality. American Psychiatric Publishing Inc, Washington, DC, pp 43–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Piven J, Palmer P, Jacobi D, Childress D, Arndt S (1997a) Broader autism phenotype: evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. Am J Psychiatry 154:185–190

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Piven J, Palmer P, Santangelo S, Jacobi D, Childress D (1997b) Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. Am J Med Genet (Neuropsychiatr Genet) 74:398–411

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Puce A, Allison T, Asgari M, Gore JC, McCarthy G (1996) Differential sensitivity of human visual cortex to faces, letterstrings, and textures: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. J Neurosci 16:5205–5215

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Puce A, Allison T, McCarthy G (1999) Electrophysiological studies of human face perception. III: Effects of top-down processing on face-specific potentials. Cereb Cortex 9:445–458

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rinehart NJ, Bradshaw JL, Tonge BJ, Brereton AV, Bellgrove MA (2002) A neurobehavioral examination of individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder using a fronto-striatal model of dysfunction. Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev 1:164–177

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rojas DC, Smith JA, Benkers TL, Camou SL, Reite ML, Rogers SJ (2004) Hippocampus and amygdala volumes in parents of children with autistic disorder. Am J Psychiatry 161:2038–2044

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosvold HE, Mirsky AF, Pribram KH (1954) Influence of amygdalectomy on social behavior in monkeys. J Comp Physiol Psychol 47:173–178

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Russo N, Flanagan T, Iarocci G, Berringer D, Zelazo PD, Burack JA (2007) Deconstructing executive deficits among persons with autism: implications for cognitive neuroscience. Brain Cogn 65:77–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salmond CH, Vargha-Khadem F, Gadian DG, de Haan M, Baldeweg T (2007) Heterogeneity in the patterns of neural abnormality in autistic spectrum disorders: evidence from ERP and MRI. Cortex 43:686–699

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scherf KS, Luna B, Minshew N, Behrmann M (2010) Location, location, location: alterations in the functional topography of face- but not object- or place-related cortex in adolescents with autism. Front Hum Neurosci 4:26

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitz N, Rubia K, Daly E, Smith A, Williams S, Murphy DG (2006) Neural correlates of executive function in autistic spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry 59:7–16

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz RT, Gauthier I, Klin A, Fulbright RK, Anderson AW, Volkmar F et al (2000) Abnormal ventral temporal cortical activity during face discrimination among individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. Arch Gen Psychiatry 57:331–340

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schumann CM, Hamstra J, Goodlin-Jones BL, Lotspeich LJ, Kwon H, Buonocore MH et al (2004) The amygdala is enlarged in children but not adolescents with autism; the hippocampus is enlarged at all ages. J Neurosci 24:6392–6401

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shafritz KM, Dichter GS, Baranek GT, Belger A (2008) The neural circuitry mediating shifts in behavioral response and cognitive set in autism. Biol Psychiatry 63:974–980

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • South M, Ozonoff S, McMahon WM (2007) The relationship between executive functioning, central coherence, and repetitive behaviors in the high-functioning autism spectrum. Autism 11:437–451

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sparks BF, Friedman SD, Shaw DW, Aylward EH, Echelard D, Artru AA et al (2002) Brain structural abnormalities in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Neurology 59:184–192

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Spezio ML, Adolphs R, Hurley RSE, Piven J (2005) Analysis of face gaze in autism using “bubbles”. Neuropsychologia 45:144–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone VE, Baron-Cohen S, Knight RT (1998) Frontal lobe contributions to theory of mind. J Cogn Neurosci 10:640–656

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Uddin LQ, Kelly AM, Biswal BB, Xavier Castellanos F, Milham MP (2009) Functional connectivity of default mode network components: correlation, anticorrelation, and causality. Hum Brain Mapp 30:625–637

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang AT, Dapretto M, Hariri AR, Sigman M, Bookheimer SY (2004) Neural correlates of facial affect processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43:481–490

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webb SJ, Jones EJ, Merkle K, Murias M, Greenson J, Richards T et al (2010) Response to familiar faces, newly familiar faces, and novel faces as assessed by ERPs is intact in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Int J Psychophysiol 77:106–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whalen PJ, Shin LM, McInerney SC, Fischer H, Wright CI, Rauch SL (2001) A functional MRI study of human amygdala responses to facial expressions of fear versus anger. Emotion 1:70–83

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wong TK, Fung PC, Chua SE, McAlonan GM (2008) Abnormal spatiotemporal processing of emotional facial expressions in childhood autism: dipole source analysis of event-related potentials. Eur J Neurosci 28:407–416

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yerys BE, Hepburn SL, Pennington BF, Rogers SJ (2007) Executive function in preschoolers with autism: evidence consistent with a secondary deficit. J Autism Dev Disord 37:1068–1079

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Young AW, Hellawell DJ, Van De Wal C, Johnson M (1996) Facial expression processing after amygdalotomy. Neuropsychologia 34:31–39

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the NIMH Grants # HD40127 and U54MH66418; the NC TRACS Institute Research Funds; the National Center for Research Awards # UL1RR025747; the # NICHD 2R01-HD042168-05A; and the UNC University Council Small Grants Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Aysenil Belger, Kimberly L. H. Carpenter, Gunes H. Yucel, Katherine M. Cleary & Franc C. L. Donkers

  2. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Aysenil Belger

  3. Curriculum in Neurobiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Aysenil Belger, Kimberly L. H. Carpenter & Katherine M. Cleary

Authors
  1. Aysenil Belger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kimberly L. H. Carpenter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gunes H. Yucel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Katherine M. Cleary
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Franc C. L. Donkers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aysenil Belger.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Belger, A., Carpenter, K.L.H., Yucel, G.H. et al. The Neural Circuitry of Autism. Neurotox Res 20, 201–214 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-010-9234-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-010-9234-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation