Abnormal brain activation in autism spectrum disorder during negative emotion processing: A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has deficits in emotional processing, which is one of the most common abnormalities in ASD social skills. Studies have shown that negative emotions seem to stimulate brain activity more effectively. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the abnormal performance of ASD in processing negative emotions. Considering the various results on negative emotions due to factors such as experimental paradigms and sample sizes, meta-analysis can consolidate multiple studies to obtain more reliable conclusions and explore potential factors. Therefore, this study conducted meta-analysis on negative emotions to explore the abnormal brain activation patterns of negative emotion processing in ASD. Our results revealed abnormal brain activation patterns in ASD at the systemic level when processing negative emotions, such as –abnormal hypoactivation in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, right cerebellum, left fusiform gyrus, and left amygdala, and abnormally complementary hyperactivation in the bilateral temporal gyrus. The negative emotion processing deficits in ASD seem to stem from the aforementioned comprehensive damage to brain regions from the mirror neuron system and the limbic system. Further, there were differences in abnormal brain activation patterns in explicit and implicit processing of negative emotions. These abnormal activation regions were significantly positively correlated with the severity of communication and social deficits in ASD, indicating impaired social skills in negative emotion processing. These findings contribute to further understanding of the pathophysiology of ASD and provide new perspectives for the treatment, rehabilitation, and diagnosis of ASD related impairments.