Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brain: an fMRI study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Social intelligence is increasingly recognized as distinct from general intelligence.
• The 'social brain' network, including the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG), and amygdala, is proposed to underpin social cognition.
• Individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome (AS) often exhibit social intelligence deficits, potentially linked to amygdala dysfunction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the 'social brain' theory proposed by Brothers et al.
• To investigate neural correlates of social intelligence in healthy individuals and patients with autism/AS.
• To examine the role of the amygdala in mentalistic inference from eye expressions.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity.
• Participants included healthy subjects and patients with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome.
• A task involving judging mental states from eye expressions was administered.

Main Results:

• fMRI confirmed increased activation in the STG and amygdala during social intelligence tasks in normal subjects.
• Prefrontal cortex regions also showed activation in healthy individuals.
• Autism/AS patients activated fronto-temporal regions but not the amygdala when inferring mental states from eyes.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the 'social brain' theory for normal social intelligence.
• Results suggest amygdala dysfunction may underlie social deficits in autism/AS.
• The study highlights the amygdala's critical role in mentalistic inference.