Project Summary

Kim M. Dalton, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2005) of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, plans to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural circuitry involved in the gaze aversion and face-processing problems that individuals with autism experience. Difficulties in interpreting facial expressions and avoidance of looking into someone’s face to reference a person’s reaction are hallmarks of children and adults with autism. Recent research has found that gaze-aversion is associated with an atypical brain activation pattern when individuals with autism process faces. Dr. Dalton proposes that gaze-aversion and abnormalities in the perception of faces contribute significantly to the social impairment that characterizes autism, and that the trouble lies in affective neural circuitry deficits. Dr. Dalton suggests that gaze-aversion and face-processing problems arise from abnormalities in the central circuitry of emotion regulation, which causes autistic individuals to have heightened sensitivity and over-arousal to social/emotional stimuli. Dr. Dalton will use fMRI, eye-tracking and other physiological and behavioral measures to test whether gaze-aversion and differences in face processing in autism are due to unique affective neural circuitry responses. Findings may give clues as to how to abate the over-arousal by reducing the social significance of faces.

Program Area: ANXIETY DISORDERS\Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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