2025-07-04 早稲田大学
図 身体部位の表象構造が自閉スペクトラム症(ASD)者と定型発達(TD)者で類似
<関連情報>
- https://www.waseda.jp/inst/research/news/81350
- https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/IMAG.a.24/130904/Visual-Body-Part-Representation-of-the-Lateral
自閉症スペクトラム障害者における外側後頭側頭皮質の視覚的身体部位表現: 単変量および多変量fMRI研究 Visual body part representation of the lateral occipitotemporal cortex in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A univariate and multivariate fMRI study
Yuto Kurihara,Hirotaka Kosaka,Bianca A. Schuster,Ryo Kitada,Takanori Kochiyama,Hidehiko Okazawa,Rieko Osu,Yuko Okamoto
Imaging Neuroscience Published:June 05 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.24
Abstract
The lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) is a part of the brain network that processes human body recognition. It has been implicated in various neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In typically developing (TD) individuals, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown three distinct response patterns to three categories of body parts in the LOTC, namely, action effector body parts, non-effector body parts, and facial parts. It is currently unclear whether the similar topological organization of the LOTC is observed in individuals with ASD, and if social interaction difficulties in this group may partially result from differences in body part recognition in this area. In this fMRI study, adults with ASD and TD adults viewed photographs of hands, feet, arms, legs, chests, waists, upper/lower faces, whole bodies, and chairs. Mass univariate analysis showed no differences in the LOTC response to whole-body images (relative to images of chairs) in the bilateral LOTC between adults with ASD and TD adults. In addition, there were no group differences in the responses to body parts. Furthermore, multivariate (representational similarity) analyses revealed a significant similar body part representation organized into three clusters (limbs, torsos, and faces) in the bilateral LOTC between TD adults and those with ASD. These results indicate that TD adults and those with ASD have comparable neural representations within the LOTC for whole bodies and body parts.
