Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2019 Apr:36:100602.
doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.11.004. Epub 2018 Nov 29.

No evidence of differences in cognitive control in children with autism spectrum disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder: An fMRI study

Bram Gooskens  1 , Dienke J Bos  2 , Vincent T Mensen  2 , Devon A Shook  2 , Muriel M K Bruchhage  3 , Jilly Naaijen  4 , Isabella Wolf  5 , Daniel Brandeis  6 , Steven C R Williams  3 , Jan K Buitelaar  7 , Bob Oranje  2 , Sarah Durston  2 ; TACTICS consortium
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

No evidence of differences in cognitive control in children with autism spectrum disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder: An fMRI study

Bram Gooskens et al. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Repetitive behaviors are among the core symptoms of both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and are thought to be associated with impairments in cognitive control. However, it is still unknown how deficits in cognitive control and associated neural circuitry relate to the quality or severity of repetitive behavior in children with these disorders. Therefore, we investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of cognitive control using a modified stop-signal task in a multicenter study of children (aged 8-12 years) with ASD, OCD and typically developing (TD) children (N = 95). As both ASD and OCD have high levels of comorbidity with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), we did an exploratory analysis addressing ADHD-symptoms. We found that children with ASD and OCD did not show deficits in cognitive control or changes in brain activity in task-relevant neural networks when compared to TD children. However, increased activity in prefrontal brain areas was associated with increased symptoms of comorbid ADHD. As such, this study does not support differences in cognitive control or associated neural circuitry in children with ASD and OCD, but rather suggests that changes in cognitive control in these disorders may be related to symptoms of comorbid ADHD.

Keywords: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Autism spectrum disorder; Cognitive control; Compulsive behavior; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; fMRI.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A) Task activation across all groups for successful stop trials (successful stop > correct go trials), thresholded at pFWE = 0.05, and B) failed stop trials (failed stop > correct go trials), thresholded at pFWE = 0.05, showing robust frontostriatal activation during cognitive control. The numbers above the colorbars reflect t-values.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Results of the region of interest analysis during failed stopping, showing A) increased left middle frontal gyrus activation in the high CPRS-R group compared to the low CPRS-R group, B) increased left middle cingulate gyrus activation in the high versus low CPRS-R group, and C) increased right middle cingulate gyrus activation in the high CPRS-R group. Y-axis reflects parameter estimates. The numbers next to the colorbars reflect t-values. Asterisks denote ** p < .01, *** p < .001. CPRS = Conners’ Parent Rating scale – Revised.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Negative correlation between stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) and right insula/inferior frontal gyrus activity in children with ASD or OCD who show elevated symptoms of ADHD (solid line, r = -0.630, p =  .007). There was no significant correlation in children with low symptoms of ADHD (dashed line, r = -0.114, p =  .654). Y-axis reflects parameter estimates. ms = milliseconds.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abramovitch A., Dar R., Mittelman A., Wilhelm S. Comorbidity between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder across the lifespan: a systematic and critical review. Harv. Rev. Psychiatry. 2015;23(4):245–262. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adams N.C., Jarrold C. Inhibition in autism: children with autism have difficulty inhibiting irrelevant distractors but not prepotent responses. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 2012;42(6):1052–1063. - PubMed
    1. Ambrosino S., Bos D.J., van Raalten T.R., Kobussen N.A., van Belle J., Oranje B., & Durston S. Functional connectivity during cognitive control in children with autism spectrum disorder: an independent component analysis. J. Neural Transm. 2014;121(9):1145–1155. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ameis S.H., Lerch J.P., Taylor M.J., Lee W., Viviano J.D., Pipitone J., Nazeri A., Croarkin P.E., Voineskos A.N., Lai M.-C., Crosbie J., Brian J., Soreni N., Schachar R., Szatmari P., Arnold P.D., Anagnostou E. A diffusion tensor imaging study in children with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, OCD, and matched controls: distinct and non-distinct white matter disruption and dimensional brain-behavior relationships. Am. J. Psychiatry. 2016;173(12):1213–1222. - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association . Author; Washington, DC: 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (4th ed., text rev.)

Publication types