Brain Responses Underlying Anthropomorphism, Agency, and Social Attribution in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Theory of Mind (ToM) is impaired in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), potentially due to altered social brain region activation.
• Typically Developing (TD) individuals tend to overextend ToM and anthropomorphize, but the role of anthropomorphism in ASD social attribution is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of anthropomorphism on social attribution and neural responses in ASD and TD individuals.
• To examine how the degree of anthropomorphism affects intentional attribution and social brain engagement in ASD.

Main Methods:

• fMRI study involving 14 ASD and 14 TD adults observing animated stick figures and geometric shapes.
• Participants viewed interactions varying in randomness and social meaningfulness.
• Out-of-scanner measures assessed ToM skills and real-world social deficits, with whole-brain analysis using SPM12.

Main Results:

• ToM network regions activated in response to social movement and human-like figures in both ASD and TD groups.
• Higher ToM ability correlated with increased TPJ and MPFC activity when viewing stick figures.
• More severe social symptoms in ASD were linked to reduced right TPJ activation during social movement observation.

Conclusions:

• The extent of anthropomorphism does not appear to differentially impact social attribution in individuals with ASD.
• The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) plays a significant role in Theory of Mind (ToM) and social attribution processes.