Visual body part representation of the lateral occipitotemporal cortex in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A univariate and multivariate fMRI study

The lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) is a part of the brain network thatprocesses human body recognition. It has been implicated in variousneurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Intypically developing (TD) individuals, functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) studies have shown three distinct response patterns to three categoriesof body parts in the LOTC, namely, action effector body parts, non-effector bodyparts, and facial parts. It is currently unclear whether the similar topologicalorganization of the LOTC is observed in individuals with ASD, and if socialinteraction difficulties in this group may partially result from differences inbody part recognition in this area. In this fMRI study, adults with ASD and TDadults viewed photographs of hands, feet, arms, legs, chests, waists,upper/lower faces, whole bodies, and chairs. Mass univariate analysis showed nodifferences in the LOTC response to whole-body images (relative to images ofchairs) in the bilateral LOTC between adults with ASD and TD adults. Inaddition, there were no group differences in the responses to body parts.Furthermore, multivariate (representational similarity) analyses revealed asignificant similar body part representation organized into three clusters(limbs, torsos, and faces) in the bilateral LOTC between TD adults and thosewith ASD. These results indicate that TD adults and those with ASD havecomparable neural representations within the LOTC for whole bodies and bodyparts.