Atypical attentional networks and the emergence of autism

NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS

卷:37

Review

Keehn, Brandon^1,2  Mueller, Ralph-Axel³  Townsend, Jeanne⁴ 

[1] Boston Childrens Hosp, Labs Cognit Neurosci, Div Dev Med, Boston, MA 02215 USA

[2] Harvard Univ, Sch Med, Boston, MA USA

[3] San Diego State Univ, Dept Psychol, Brain Dev Imaging Lab, San Diego, CA 92182 USA

[4] Univ Calif San Diego, Dept Neurosci, Res Aging & Dev Lab, San Diego, CA 92103 USA

关键词: Autism;    Attention;    Development;    Alerting;    Arousal;    Orienting;    Disengagement;    Executive control;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.11.014

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The sociocommunicative impairments that define autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not present at birth but emerge gradually over the first two years of life. In typical development, basic attentional processes may provide a critical foundation for sociocommunicative abilities. Therefore early attentional dysfunction in ASD may result in atypical development of social communication. Prior research has demonstrated that persons with ASD exhibit early and lifelong impairments in attention. The primary aim of this paper is to provide a review of the extant research on attention in ASD using a framework of functionally independent attentional networks as conceptualized by Posner and colleagues: the alerting, orienting and executive control networks (Posner and Petersen, 1990; Petersen and Posner, 2012). The neural substrates and typical development of each attentional network are briefly discussed, a review of the ASD attention literature is presented, and a hypothesis is proposed that links aberrant attentional mechanisms, specifically impaired disengagement of attention, with the emergence of core ASD symptoms. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free