Incorporating special interests to investigate the language system in autism: A feasibility pilot fMRI study

ABSTRACT Most autistic individuals have sustained, focused interests in particular topics or activities. In some cases, these special interests have been shown to motivate communicative behaviors, a domain in which many autistic individuals experience challenges. We conducted a pilot study with 15 autistic children (ages 8.18 – 13.27 years, mean(SD)= 11.17(1.62), 3 female/11 male/1 nonbinary), comparing brain responses elicited by short narratives tailored to individuals’ special interests to responses elicited by generic, non-tailored narratives. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that autistic children did not show typical language responses to generic narratives. However, they did show heightened responses to the narratives that incorporated their special interests relative to the generic narratives in language regions and in regions associated with reward and self-reference. Brain responses for personalized narratives were also more consistent across children than responses for the generic narratives. These results suggest that personalizing stimuli by incorporating special interests might be a promising approach for neuroimaging in autistic participants. LAY SUMMARY In a pilot sample of autistic children, we found that listening to short narratives tailored to each child’s special interest elicited higher responses in the brain than listening to non-personalized narratives. Brain responses across children were also more similar for the special interest narratives. Thus, personalizing stimuli to special interests may be a promising approach for neuroimaging studies of autism. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes DATA AVAILABILITY: Data and materials are available on OSF (https://osf.io/dh3wq/). FUNDING: This research was supported by the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research at MIT, Seth Klarman and Paul Gannon (to JDEG), NIH F32 MH117933 and Simons Center for the Social Brain Postdoctoral Fellowship (to AMD), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program #1745302 (to HAO), and MIT Hugh Hampton Young Memorial Fellowship and MIT Media Lab Learning Innovation Fellowship (to KTJ). CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors declare no competing financial interests. ETHICS APPROVAL: This study was approved by MIT’s Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects. Consent was obtained from parents/guardians, and assent was obtained from child participants.