自閉癥兒童在辨別社交行為是否恰當(dāng)?shù)臅r候會很費力,；即使他們判斷正確,，也解釋不清其中的緣由。在10月17日出版的公共科學(xué)圖書館期刊PLoS One 上，來自卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)的伊麗莎白?卡特和她的同事發(fā)表了一篇關(guān)于腦成像的研究論文，也論述了這一事實,。
作者說，他們通過核磁共振成像研究,，結(jié)果也驗證了之前關(guān)于自閉癥兒童語言缺陷的研究成果,。在目前的調(diào)查中，科學(xué)家們給孩子們看兩幅圖片,，分別詢問自閉癥兒童和正常兒童,，哪一幅圖上是壞小子（從社會觀念判斷），和哪一幅圖上是戶外的景象（個人判斷）,。兩組兒童都回答正確,，而自閉癥兒童在回答期間，大腦中負(fù)責(zé)社交和語言的部分并不活躍,。雖然在這里不需要說話,，但正常兒童在回答的時候,，大腦中負(fù)責(zé)語言的部分相對活躍一些。
在作者看來,，他們的實驗成果證實了文章開頭的假設(shè),。她還說,，使用語言頻率的下降還會造成孩子總結(jié),、概括能力的降低。
“研究成果表明,，幫助孩子們一起把腦中的知識翻譯成口頭的語言,，是很重要的。”卡特說,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047241
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Is He Being Bad? Social and Language Brain Networks during Social Judgment in Children with Autism
Elizabeth J. Carter, Diane L. Williams, Nancy J. Minshew, Jill F. Lehman
Individuals with autism often violate social rules and have lower accuracy in identifying and explaining inappropriate social behavior. Twelve children with autism (AD) and thirteen children with typical development (TD) participated in this fMRI study of the neurofunctional basis of social judgment. Participants indicated in which of two pictures a boy was being bad (Social condition) or which of two pictures was outdoors (Physical condition). In the within-group Social–Physical comparison, TD children used components of mentalizing and language networks [bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS)], whereas AD children used a network that was primarily right IFG and bilateral pSTS, suggesting reduced use of social and language networks during this social judgment task. A direct group comparison on the Social–Physical contrast showed that the TD group had greater mPFC, bilateral IFG, and left superior temporal pole activity than the AD group. No regions were more active in the AD group than in the group with TD in this comparison. Both groups successfully performed the task, which required minimal language. The groups also performed similarly on eyetracking measures, indicating that the activation results probably reflect the use of a more basic strategy by the autism group rather than performance disparities. Even though language was unnecessary, the children with TD recruited language areas during the social task, suggesting automatic encoding of their knowledge into language; however, this was not the case for the children with autism. These findings support behavioral research indicating that, whereas children with autism may recognize socially inappropriate behavior, they have difficulty using spoken language to explain why it is inappropriate. The fMRI results indicate that AD children may not automatically use language to encode their social understanding, making expression and generalization of this knowledge more difficult.
