Social visual preference mediates the effect of cortical thickness on symptom severity in children with autism spectrum disorder

Jierong Chen; Zhen Wei; Chuangyong Xu; Ziwen Peng; Junjie Yang; Guobin Wan; Bin Chen; Jianhua Gong; Keying Zhou

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1132284

Social visual preference mediates the effect of cortical thickness on symptom severity in children with autism spectrum disorder

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 16:14:1132284. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1132284. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jierong Chen^#¹, Zhen Wei^#^{1

2}, Chuangyong Xu¹, Ziwen Peng³, Junjie Yang⁴, Guobin Wan¹, Bin Chen¹, Jianhua Gong⁴, Keying Zhou⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Child Psychiatry and Rehabilitation, Affliated Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China.
² Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.
³ Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Child Health Care, Luohu District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Shenzhen People's Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that there is a robust relationship between altered neuroanatomy and autistic symptoms in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social visual preference, which is regulated by specific brain regions, is also related to symptom severity. However, there were a few studies explored the potential relationships among brain structure, symptom severity, and social visual preference.

Methods: The current study investigated relationships among brain structure, social visual preference, and symptom severity in 43 children with ASD and 26 typically developing (TD) children (aged 2-6 years).

Results: Significant differences were found in social visual preference and cortical morphometry between the two groups. Decreased percentage of fixation time in digital social images (%DSI) was negatively related to not only the thickness of the left fusiform gyrus (FG) and right insula, but also the Calibrated Severity Scores for the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Social Affect (ADOS-SA-CSS). Mediation analysis showed that %DSI partially mediated the relationship between neuroanatomical alterations (specifically, thickness of the left FG and right insula) and symptom severity.

Conclusion: These findings offer initial evidence that atypical neuroanatomical alterations may not only result in direct effects on symptom severity but also lead to indirect effects on symptom severity through social visual preference. This finding enhances our understanding of the multiple neural mechanisms implicated in ASD.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; mediation; neuroanatomy; social visual preference; symptom severity.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20220530155204009), the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2019B030335001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871113 and 31900770), Shenzhen Key Medical Discipline Construction Fund (SZXK071), Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, and Dongguan Science and Technology of Social Development Program (20211800903142).