Are there distinct levels of language comprehension in autistic individuals – cluster analysis
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Vyshedskiy A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11006660 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Analysis of linguistic abilities that are concurrently impaired in individuals with language deficits allows identification of a shared underlying mechanism. If any two linguistic abilities are mediated by the same underlying mechanism, then both abilities will be absent if this mechanism is broken. Clustering techniques automatically arrange these abilities according to their co-occurrence and therefore group together abilities mediated by the same mechanism. This study builds upon the discovery of three distinct mechanisms of language comprehension in 31,845 autistic individuals1. The current clustering analysis of a more diverse group of individuals with language impairments resulted in the three mechanisms identical to those found previously: (1) the most-basic command-language-comprehension-mechanism; (2) the intermediate modifier-language-comprehension-mechanism mediating comprehension of color, size, and number modifiers; and (3) the most-advanced syntactic-language-comprehension-mechanism. This discovery calls for mapping of the three empirically-defined language-comprehension-mechanisms in the context of cognitive neuroscience, which is the main goal of this study.
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Project description:Although Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is generally a lifelong disability, a minority of individuals with ASD overcome their symptoms to such a degree that they are generally indistinguishable from their typically-developing peers. That is, they have achieved an Optimal Outcome (OO). The question addressed by the current study is whether this normalized behavior reflects normalized brain functioning, or alternatively, the action of compensatory systems. Either possibility is plausible, as most participants with OO received years of intensive therapy that could alter brain networks to align with typical function or work around ASD-related neural dysfunction. Individuals ages 8 to 21 years with high-functioning ASD (n = 23), OO (n = 16), or typical development (TD; n = 20) completed a functional MRI scan while performing a sentence comprehension task. Results indicated similar activations in frontal and temporal regions (left middle frontal, left supramarginal, and right superior temporal gyri) and posterior cingulate in OO and ASD groups, where both differed from the TD group. Furthermore, the OO group showed heightened "compensatory" activation in numerous left- and right-lateralized regions (left precentral/postcentral gyri, right precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, right supramarginal gyrus, left superior temporal/parahippocampal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus) and cerebellum, relative to both ASD and TD groups. Behaviorally normalized language abilities in OO individuals appear to utilize atypical brain networks, with increased recruitment of language-specific as well as right homologue and other systems. Early intensive learning and experience may normalize behavioral language performance in OO, but some brain regions involved in language processing may continue to display characteristics that are more similar to ASD than typical development, while others show characteristics not like ASD or typical development.
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