The role of MT+/V5 during biological motion perception in Asperger Syndrome: An fMRI study

Asperger Syndrome (AS), a condition on the autistic spectrum, is characterized by deficits in the ability to use social cues to infer mental state information. Few studies have examined whether these deficits might be understood in terms of differences in visual information processing. The present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine differences in brain activity among individuals with AS while performing a task that typically leads to the automatic interpretation of human movement. Despite similar behavioural performance, significantly less activity was found for the AS group (relative to a control group) in inferior, middle and superior temporal regions, including the human analogue of MT+/V5. These data suggest that AS is associated with unique patterns of brain activity during the perception of visually presented social cues.