Processing of pragmatic communication in ASD: a video-based brain imaging study

Social and pragmatic difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well recognized, but their neural processing underpinnings remain unclear. This study examined activity of brain network components linked to social and pragmatic understanding to test whether complex socio-pragmatic events evoke differences between ASD and control groups. Nineteen young adults with ASD and 19 controls viewed video clips depicting complex social events requiring pragmatic processing during fMRI. Responses of selected brain network components associated with social/pragmatic processing were compared. Overall, processing in ASD resembled controls for most scenes, but group differences emerged in social brain network activity when participants observed situations with concurrent verbal and non-verbal communication. Findings suggest challenges in processing concurrent multimodal cues in complex pragmatic situations in ASD.

Aija Kotila, Aapo Hyvärinen, Leena Mäkinen, Eeva Leinonen, Tuula Hurtig, Hanna Ebeling, Vesa Korhonen, Vesa J. Kiviniemi, Soile Loukusa