Brain responses to biological motion predict treatment outcome in young adults with autism receiving Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training: Preliminary findings

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy 2017-06, Vol.93, p.55-66
• Main Authors: Yang, Y.J. Daniel, Allen, Tandra, Abdullahi, Sebiha M., Pelphrey, Kevin A., Volkmar, Fred R., Chapman, Sandra B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Auditory pathways; Autism; Autistic adults; Autistic Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Autistic Disorder - therapy; Behavior modification; Behavior Therapy - methods; Biological markers; Biological motion; Biomarkers; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Circuits; Cognition; Comprehension; Computer applications; Emotion recognition; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Female; fMRI; High functioning; Humans; Intervention; Language; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical imaging; Motion detection; Motion Perception - physiology; Motor task performance; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Pilot Projects; Precision medicine; Predictive biomarker; Prosody; Social Behavior; Social cognition; Social education; Social interactions; Social Perception; Temporal variations; Theory of mind; Treatment Outcome; Validity; Virtual Reality; Young Adult; Young adults
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2017.03.014

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by remarkable heterogeneity in social, communication, and behavioral deficits, creating a major barrier in identifying effective treatments for a given individual with ASD. To facilitate precision medicine in ASD, we utilized a well-validated biological motion neuroimaging task to identify pretreatment biomarkers that can accurately forecast the response to an evidence-based behavioral treatment, Virtual Reality-Social Cognition Training (VR-SCT). In a preliminary sample of 17 young adults with high-functioning ASD, we identified neural predictors of change in emotion recognition after VR-SCT. The predictors were characterized by the pretreatment brain activations to biological vs. scrambled motion in the neural circuits that support (a) language comprehension and interpretation of incongruent auditory emotions and prosody, and (b) processing socio-emotional experience and interpersonal affective information, as well as emotional regulation. The predictive value of the findings for individual adults with ASD was supported by regression-based multivariate pattern analyses with cross validation. To our knowledge, this is the first pilot study that shows neuroimaging-based predictive biomarkers for treatment effectiveness in adults with ASD. The findings have potentially far-reaching implications for developing more precise and effective treatments for ASD. [Display omitted] •Biological motion fMRI task was tested for advancing predictive biomarkers.•Young adults with autism received Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training.•Pretreatment brain activations predicted change in emotion recognition.•Prediction involves regions implicated in language and socio-emotional processing.•Multivariate pattern analysis with cross validation supports predictive accuracy.