Neural correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in autism spectrum disorders.

摘要: Difficulties with pragmatic aspects of communication are universal across individuals autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here we focused on an aspect language comprehension that is relevant to social interaction in daily life: the integration speaker characteristics inferred from voice content a message. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), examined neural correlates voice-based inferences about speaker's age, gender or background, and sentence adults ASD matched control participants. Relative group, group showed increased activation right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG; Brodmann area 47) for speaker-incongruent sentences compared speaker-congruent sentences. Given both groups performed behaviourally at similar level debriefing interview outside scanner, RIFG was interpreted as being compensatory nature. It presumably reflects spill-over processing dominant left hemisphere due higher task demands faced by participants when integrating spoken sentence. Furthermore, only decreased relative ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC; 10), including anterior cingulate (ACC; 24/32). Since vMPFC involved self-referential related judgments self others, absence such modulation possibly points atypical default mental activity ASD. Our results show mechanisms necessary implicit, low-level inferential processes understanding. This indicates problems not restricted high-level processes, but encompass most basic processing.