Both the mirror and the affordance systems might be impaired in adults with high autistic traits. Evidence from EEG mu and beta rhythms.
The association of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with an altered mirror neuron system is still controversial. At the same time, the processing of object affordances by persons with ASD is a neglected issue. In this electroencephalographic study, adults differing in their autism quotient (AQ) scores were selected. We found anomalous modulation of mu and beta rhythms in high-AQ, compared to low-AQ persons, while they watched a set of goal-directed manual actions. This confirms that observing actions involving implicit intentions most clearly reveals the impairment of the mirror neurons system (MNS). The high-AQ group also showed anomalous mu and beta modulation when they looked at pictures of manipulable objects, indicating a deficit in processing motor affordances. We conclude that high-AQ adults have neural impairment of both the MNS and the affordance systems, which could underlie their relational problems with both people and objects. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1032-1042. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Adults with autistic traits (high-autism quotient [AQ] scores) and matched controls (low-AQ) observed intentional hand actions, and pictures of manipulable and non-manipulable objects. The high-AQ group compared to the control group, showed anomalous modulation of the electroencephalographic motoric rhythms (mu and beta) while observing familiar goal-directed actions, confirming an impairment of their mirror neuron system. Also, their brain rhythms were anomalous when they watched manipulable objects, which suggest a dysfunction in their relation with objects (affordance system).
['de Vega|Manuel|M|0000-0002-9596-1642', 'Padrón|Iván|I|', 'Moreno|Iván Z|IZ|', 'García-Marco|Enrique|E|', 'Domínguez|Alberto|A|', 'Marrero|Hipólito|H|', 'Hernández|Sergio|S|']
D000328:Adult D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder D001611:Beta Rhythm D001921:Brain D003210:Concept Formation D004569:Electroencephalography D005260:Female D006225:Hand D006801:Humans D033182:Intention D008297:Male D059167:Mirror Neurons D011597:Psychomotor Performance D066107:Social Skills D014796:Visual Perception
affordances mirror neuron system electroencephalography (EEG) mu rhythms