Increased Accuracy of Emotion Recognition in Individuals with Autism-Like Traits after Five Days of Magnetic Stimulations

Abstract

<jats:p>Individuals with autism-like traits (ALT) belong to a subclinical group with similar social deficits as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Their main social deficits include atypical eye contact and difficulty in understanding facial expressions, both of which are associated with an abnormality of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). It is still undetermined whether it is possible to improve the social function of ALT individuals through noninvasive neural modulation. To this end, we randomly assigned ALT individuals into the real (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>16</mml:mn></mml:math>) and sham (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>16</mml:mn></mml:math>) stimulation groups. All subjects received five consecutive days of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) on the rpSTS. Eye tracking data and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired on the first and sixth days. The real group showed significant improvement in emotion recognition accuracy after iTBS, but the change was not significantly larger than that in the sham group. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the rpSTS and the left cerebellum significantly decreased in the real group than the sham group after iTBS. At baseline, rsFC in the left cerebellum was negatively correlated with emotion recognition accuracy. Our findings indicated that iTBS of the rpSTS could improve emotion perception of ALT individuals by modulating associated neural networks. This stimulation protocol could be a vital therapeutic strategy for the treatment of ASD.</jats:p>

Effects of non-invasive neurostimulation on autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review

“…In addition, the autism treatment evaluation checklist (ATEC) and 3-back task were utilized by Amatachaya et al ( 33 ) and Abdullah Habib ( 32 ), respectively. With respect to TMS trials, three trials stimulated posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) with one unilaterally ( 27 ) and two bilaterally ( 29 , 30 ). Two trials chose to intervene over bilateral DLPFC ( 26 , 28 ), and one focused on bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) ( 21 ) ( Table 3 ).…”

“…Given these two tasks, nonetheless, are not specific to the pSTS activities, they also adopted the repetitive behavior scale-revised (RBS-R) as the exploratory outcome ( 30 ). Interestingly, both Liu et al and Moxon-Emre et al showed interest in the objective outcome, thereby fMRI and GlX and GABA level was applied for outcome assessment ( 27 , 28 ). A different set of scales including BRIEF-MCI and the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) task were adopted by Ameis et al ( 26 ).…”

“…Stimulation over DLPFC for 4 weeks showed that no significant effects on these patients in terms of executive function as compared to sham group. Subjects in the study by Liu et al received 5 consecutive days of verum or sham iTBS on the rpSTS ( 27 ). Those subjects underwent real stimulation did not show significantly larger improvement in emotion recognition than that in the sham group.…”

Enhancing Implicit Mentalizing in Autism Spectrum Disorder with Theta-burst stimulation of the Right Temporoparietal Junction: A Randomized Sham-controlled Double-blind Crossover Study

“…The majority of TBS studies in ASD mostly examined cognitive and behavioral functioning. These studies specifically targeted regions such as the posterior STS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), however, the outcomes have been inconsistent 48,[52][53][54][55][56][57] . To date, there has been a lack of research on the effects of rTMS on the rTPJ region in individuals with ASD and its impact on mentalizing abilities.…”