Neural self-representation in autistic women and association with 'compensatory camouflaging'.
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Authors
Lai, Meng-Chuan
Lombardo, Michael V
Chakrabarti, Bhismadev
Ruigrok, Amber Nv
Bullmore, Edward T
Suckling, John
Auyeung, Bonnie
Happé, Francesca
Szatmari, Peter
MRC AIMS Consortium
Publication Date
2019-07Journal Title
Autism
ISSN
1362-3613
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
23
Issue
5
Pages
1210-1223
Language
eng
Type
Article
Physical Medium
Print-Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Lai, M., Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Ruigrok, A. N., Bullmore, E. T., Suckling, J., Auyeung, B., et al. (2019). Neural self-representation in autistic women and association with 'compensatory camouflaging'.. Autism, 23 (5), 1210-1223. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361318807159
Abstract
Prior work has revealed sex/gender-dependent autistic characteristics across behavioural and neural/biological domains. It remains unclear whether and how neural sex/gender differences are related to behavioural sex/gender differences in autism. Here, we examined whether atypical neural responses during mentalizing and self-representation are sex/gender-dependent in autistic adults and explored whether 'camouflaging' (acting as if behaviourally neurotypical) is associated with sex/gender-dependent neural responses. In total, N = 119 adults (33 typically developing males, 29 autistic males, 29 typically developing females and 28 autistic females) participated in a task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm to assess neural activation within right temporo-parietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during mentalizing and self-representation. Camouflaging in autism was quantified as the discrepancy between extrinsic behaviour in social-interpersonal contexts and intrinsic status. While autistic men showed hypoactive right temporo-parietal junction mentalizing and ventromedial prefrontal cortex self-representation responses compared to typically developing men, such neural responses in autistic women were not different from typically developing women. In autistic women only, increasing camouflaging was associated with heightened ventromedial prefrontal cortex self-representation response. There is a lack of impaired neural self-representation and mentalizing in autistic women compared to typically developing women. Camouflaging is heightened in autistic women and may relate to neural self-representation response. These results reveal brain-behaviour relations that help explain sex/gender-heterogeneity in social brain function in autism.
Keywords
MRC AIMS Consortium, Brain, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Case-Control Studies, Social Behavior, Self Concept, Autistic Disorder, Sex Factors, Adolescent, Adult, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Young Adult, Functional Neuroimaging, Mentalization
Sponsorship
MRC (via King's College London) (PAGBAGB)
Medical Research Council (G0600977)
Wellcome Trust (091774/Z/10/Z)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361318807159
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286266
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