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Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 28–30 (2006) Cite this article

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Abstract

To examine mirror neuron abnormalities in autism, high-functioning children with autism and matched controls underwent fMRI while imitating and observing emotional expressions. Although both groups performed the tasks equally well, children with autism showed no mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis). Notably, activity in this area was inversely related to symptom severity in the social domain, suggesting that a dysfunctional 'mirror neuron system' may underlie the social deficits observed in autism.

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Figure 1: Reliable activity during imitation of emotional expressions.
Figure 2: Mirror neuron system activity during observation of emotional expressions.
Figure 3: Mirror neuron system activity and symptom severity.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this work was provided by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01 HD035470). The authors thank the Brain Mapping Medical Research Organization, the Brain Mapping Support Foundation, the Pierson-Lovelace Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Tamkin Foundation, the Jennifer Jones-Simon Foundation, the Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation, the Robson Family, the William M. and Linda R. Dietel Philanthropic Fund at the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation, the Northstar Fund and the National Center for Research Resources (grants RR12169, RR13642 and RR08655).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Mirella Dapretto, Ashley A Scott, Susan Y Bookheimer & Marco Iacoboni

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Mirella Dapretto, Marian Sigman, Susan Y Bookheimer & Marco Iacoboni

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Mari S Davies, Jennifer H Pfeifer & Marian Sigman

Authors
  1. Mirella Dapretto
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  2. Mari S Davies
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  3. Jennifer H Pfeifer
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  4. Ashley A Scott
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  5. Marian Sigman
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  6. Susan Y Bookheimer
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  7. Marco Iacoboni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mirella Dapretto.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1 (download PDF )

Reliably greater activity in ASD children vs. typically developing children during imitation comprised right visual and left anterior parietal areas (thresholded at t > 1.83, P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons at the cluster level). (PDF 64 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2 (download PDF )

Reliable signal increases during observation of facial emotional expressions in both typically developing (a) and ASD group (b) groups comprised the fusiform gyrus and the amygdala (thresholded at t > 1.83, P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons at the cluster level; small volume correction for the amygdala). (PDF 77 kb)

Supplementary Table 1 (download PDF )

Subject demographics for children participating in the fMRI study. (PDF 37 kb)

Supplementary Table 2 (download PDF )

Subject demographics for subset of children participating in both fMRI and behavioral eye-tracking Sessions. (PDF 38 kb)

Supplementary Table 3 (download PDF )

Peaks of activity during imitation of emotional expressions (PDF 64 kb)

Supplementary Table 4 (download PDF )

Peaks of activity during observation of emotional expressions (PDF 53 kb)

Supplementary Table 5 (download PDF )

Negative correlations between activity during imitation of emotional expressions and subjects' scores on the social subscales of the ADOS and ADI (PDF 51 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 113 kb) (download PDF )

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Dapretto, M., Davies, M., Pfeifer, J. et al. Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders. Nat Neurosci 9, 28–30 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1611

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