Investigating Disembodiment-related Brain Activation by Interaction between Perspective-shifting and the Experience of Agency in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Possible Relationship with Interoceptive Abilities
Ahjeong Hur1,*, Seungwon Chung2,3,*, Huiyeong Jeon2, Hoyeon Lee3, Yong-Wook Shin4, Jung-Woo Son2,3,5
1Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea
2Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea
3Autism and Developmental Disorders Treatment Center, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea
4Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
5Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea
Correspondence to: Yong-Wook Shin
Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 43 Olympic-ro 88, Songpa-gu, Seoul 05505, Korea
E-mail: shman@amc.seoul.kr
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0360-6118

Jung-Woo Son
Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital, 1 Sunwhan-ro 776, Seowon-gu, Cheongju 28644, Korea
E-mail: mammosss@hanmail.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4972-3923

*These authors contributed equally to this study as co-first authors.
Received: May 4, 2024; Revised: August 8, 2024; Accepted: September 21, 2024; Published online: October 29, 2024.
© The Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved.

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Objective: Many studies have explored sense of self in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, few have reported on their experience of “disembodiment.” This study aimed to investigate the differences in brain activity between patients with ASD and neurotypicals (NTs) under conditions causing disembodiment and to examine the correlation between their interoceptive abilities and disembodiment-related brain activity.
Methods: 18 Participants with ASD and 21 NTs completed psychological evaluations, interoceptive abilities measurement, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The fMRI images were taken while the participants performed tasks involving ball-throwing animations. The task focused on either self-agency related to ball-throwing (Agency Task) or the spatial location of a ball (Location Task). The animations were presented from constantly changing perspective (Changing View) or fixed perspective (Fixed View). The disembodiment-related condition was the interaction between the Agency Task and Changing View.
Results: Participants with ASD exhibited higher activation than NTs in regions near the left parieto-temporo-occipital junction, left precuneus, left hippocampus, and other brain areas. Furthermore, interoceptive accuracy was negatively correlated with the activity of the left superior parietal and posterior midcingulate areas, whereas interoceptive trait prediction error was positively correlated with the activity of the left hippocampus, mid-temporal area, and left posterior cingulate area in participants with ASD.
Conclusion: These results suggest that disembodiment-related brain activation might be easily manifested by the interaction between perspective-shifting and the experience of agency, and that interoceptive abilities might be related to disembodiment-related brain activation in individuals with ASD.
Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Disembodiment; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Interoception; Perspective; Agency


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