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Dive into the research topics where Daniel Elbich is active.

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Featured researches published by Daniel Elbich.


NeuroImage: Clinical | 2015

Individual differences in symptom severity and behavior predict neural activation during face processing in adolescents with autism.

K. Suzanne Scherf; Daniel Elbich; Nancy J. Minshew; Marlene Behrmann

Despite the impressive literature describing atypical neural activation in visuoperceptual face processing regions in autism, almost nothing is known about whether these perturbations extend to more affective regions in the circuitry and whether they bear any relationship to symptom severity or atypical behavior. Using fMRI, we compared face-, object-, and house-related activation in adolescent males with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typically developing (TD) matched controls. HFA adolescents exhibited hypo-activation throughout the core visuoperceptual regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, as well as in some of the affective/motivational face-processing regions, including the posterior cingulate cortex and right anterior temporal lobe. Conclusions about the relative hyper- or hypo-activation of the amygdala depended on the nature of the contrast that was used to define the activation. Individual differences in symptom severity predicted the magnitude of face activation, particularly in the right fusiform gyrus. Also, among the HFA adolescents, face recognition performance predicted the magnitude of face activation in the right anterior temporal lobe, a region that supports face individuation in TD adults. Our findings reveal a systematic relation between the magnitude of neural dysfunction, severity of autism symptoms, and variation in face recognition behavior in adolescents with autism. In so doing, we uncover brain–behavior relations that underlie one of the most prominent social deficits in autism and help resolve discrepancies in the literature.


NeuroImage | 2017

Beyond the FFA: Brain-behavior correspondences in face recognition abilities

Daniel Elbich; K. Suzanne Scherf

ABSTRACT Despite the thousands of papers investigating the neural basis of face perception in both humans and non‐human primates, very little is known about how activation within this neural architecture relates to face processing behavior. Here, we investigated individual differences in brain‐behavior correspondences within both core and extended regions of the face‐processing system in healthy typically developing adults. To do so, we employed a set of behavioral and neural measures to capture a multifaceted perspective on assessing these brain‐behavior relations. This included quantifying face and object recognition behavior, the magnitude and size of functional activation within each region, as well as a measure of global activation across regions. We report that face, but not object, recognition behavior was associated with 1) the magnitude of face‐selective activation in the left FFA1, 2) larger face‐related regions in multiple bilateral face‐patches in the fusiform gyri as well as the bilateral anterior temporal lobe and amygdala, and 3) more distributed global face‐network activation. In contrast, face recognition behavior was not associated with any measure of object‐ or place‐selective activation. These findings suggest that superior behavior is served by engaging sufficiently large, distributed patches of neural real estate, which might reflect the integration of independent populations of neurons that enables the formation of richer representations.


Journal of Vision | 2015

Altered functional connectivity in the core and extended face-processing network in adolescents with autism

Elisabeth M. Whyte; Daniel Elbich; Marlene Behrmann; Nancy J. Minshew; K. Suzanne Scherf

Atypicalities in the development of regions within the core and extended face-processing network have been implicated in the development of social symptoms for individuals with autism (Schultz, 2005; Scherf et al., 2014). As a result, the functional organization among these regions may also be impacted. Uddin, Supekar, & Menon (2013) proposed a developmental model, suggesting that adolescence may be a time of functional under-connectivity in neural networks of individuals with autism. To investigate whether the face-processing network exhibits such functional under-connectivity in autism, the current study examined functional connectivity within the face processing networks of 14 adolescents with high functioning autism (HFA) and 14 typically developing (TD) adolescents (13 to 18 years). The fMRI task consisted of a 1-back memory task while viewing multiple visual categories including: human faces, animal faces, and common objects. Regions in the face-processing network were defined at the group level separately for TDs and HFAs, and then fit to each participants individual activation. For connectivity, the best-fit model for the 12 regions was assessed for each group separately using unified structural equation modeling. We computed graph theory metrics based on the connection weights for each individual participant. The HFA adolescents had significantly higher clustering coefficients and global efficiency (p < .05), denoting more direct connections between regions. Following this, there was also a trend for the HFA group to have a greater number of edges or connections between regions. These results suggest that task-related functional connectivity between individual regions in the face-processing network of HFA adolescents is largely over-connected compared to TD adolescents. These results converge with our additional findings that TD adults with weaker face recognition abilities also have over-connected networks compared to those with stronger abilities. Together, these findings suggest that over-connected, redundant networks may interfere with proficient face-recognition behavior. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


eNeuro | 2017

Investigating the Influence of Biological Sex on the Behavioral and Neural Basis of Face Recognition

K. Suzanne Scherf; Daniel Elbich; Natalie V. Motta-Mena

Abstract There is interest in understanding the influence of biological factors, like sex, on the organization of brain function. We investigated the influence of biological sex on the behavioral and neural basis of face recognition in healthy, young adults. In behavior, there were no sex differences on the male Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT)+ or the female CFMT+ (that we created) and no own-gender bias (OGB) in either group. We evaluated the functional topography of ventral stream organization by measuring the magnitude and functional neural size of 16 individually defined face-, two object-, and two place-related regions bilaterally. There were no sex differences in any of these measures of neural function in any of the regions of interest (ROIs) or in group level comparisons. These findings reveal that men and women have similar category-selective topographic organization in the ventral visual pathway. Next, in a separate task, we measured activation within the 16 face-processing ROIs specifically during recognition of target male and female faces. There were no sex differences in the magnitude of the neural responses in any face-processing region. Furthermore, there was no OGB in the neural responses of either the male or female participants. Our findings suggest that face recognition behavior, including the OGB, is not inherently sexually dimorphic. Face recognition is an essential skill for navigating human social interactions, which is reflected equally in the behavior and neural architecture of men and women.


BMJ Open | 2018

Improving sensitivity to eye gaze cues in autism using serious game technology: study protocol for a phase I randomised controlled trial

K. Suzanne Scherf; Jason W Griffin; Brian Judy; Elisabeth M. Whyte; Charles F. Geier; Daniel Elbich; Joshua M. Smyth

Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by impairments in social communication. Core symptoms are deficits in social looking behaviours, including limited visual attention to faces and sensitivity to eye gaze cues. We designed an intervention game using serious game mechanics for adolescents with ASD. It is designed to train individuals with ASD to discover that the eyes, and shifts in gaze specifically, provide information about the external world. We predict that the game will increase understanding of gaze cues and attention to faces. Methods and analysis The Social Games for Adolescents with Autism (SAGA) trial is a preliminary, randomised controlled trial comparing the intervention game with a waitlist control condition. 34 adolescents (10–18 years) with ASD with a Full-Scale IQ between 70 and 130 and a minimum second grade reading level, and their parents, will be randomly assigned (equally to intervention or the control condition) following baseline assessments. Intervention participants will be instructed to play the computer game at home on a computer for ~30 min, three times a week. All families are tested in the lab at baseline and approximately 2 months following randomisation in all measures. Primary outcomes are assessed with eye tracking to measure sensitivity to eye gaze cues and social visual attention to faces; secondary outcomes are assessed with questionnaires to measure social skills and autism-like behaviours. The analyses will focus on evaluating the feasibility, safety and preliminary effectiveness of the intervention. Ethics and dissemination SAGA is approved by the Institutional Review Board at Pennsylvania State University (00005097). Findings will be disseminated via scientific conferences and peer-reviewed journals and to participants via newsletter. The intervention game will be available to families in the control condition after the full data are collected and if analyses indicate that it is effective. Trial registration number NCT02968225.


Journal of Vision | 2015

Over-Connectivity in the Face-Processing Network is Related to Weaker Face Recognition Ability

Daniel Elbich; Suzy Scherf

Face recognition is a complex behavioral skill and requires a distributed neural network. There are limited findings linking individual differences in activation within distinct nodes of this network (e.g., FFA) and recognition behavior, which may be related to the notion that complex behavior likely emerges from activation across distributed networks and less from individual regions within networks. Importantly, there is no work investigating whether variations in face recognition behavior are related to variations in the patterns of functional connections within the face-processing network. To address this issue, we developed a battery of face recognition tasks that are highly sensitive to individual differences in face recognition behavior in typically developing young adults. We identified 40 individuals who varied in face recognition behavior on a continuum that spanned ± 1 SD around the mean of a sample of more than 200 individuals tested in this battery. These participants were scanned in an fMRI task in which they passively viewed blocks of dynamic movies of faces, objects, and navigational scenes. Regions in the face-processing network were functional defined at the group level and then fit to each participants individual activation. For connectivity, the best-fit model for 13 regions was assessed using unified structural equation modeling separately for high (> 1 SD), average (within 1SD), and low (< 1 SD) performers. Low performers had networks with more edges, higher global efficiency, and shorter path lengths compared to average and high performers. Furthermore, each of these network properties negatively correlated with behavioral performance on the face recognition tasks across the entire sample. In sum, people with weaker face recognition abilities have vastly over-connected and redundant network topologies. In contrast, relatively stronger recognizers have more sparsely connected networks. These results suggest that distributed, but not overly redundant, functional organization is required for proficient behavior. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Journal of Vision | 2015

Axial Diffusivity in the ILF and IFOF is Related to Autism Symptom Severity

K. Suzanne Scherf; Jennifer Legault; Indira C. Turney; Daniel Elbich; Nancy J. Minshew; Marlene Behrmann

Atypical neural activation within the face-processing network is widely reported in adults and adolescents with autism; and, individual differences in symptom severity predict the magnitude of these atypical responses, particularly within posterior core regions of this network (Scherf et al., 2015). Also, recent evidence suggests that the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), a fiber tract that connects posterior core regions with more anterior extended regions, is developmentally disrupted in autism (Koldewyn et al., 2014). In typically developing children, the ILF shows changes in microstructural properties with age in terms of a reduction in mean and radial, but not axial, diffusivity (Scherf et al., 2014), which suggests ongoing myelination of this tract. In the current project, we investigated individual differences in the relation between symptom severity, age, and face recognition behavior and microstructural tract properties in 18 high-functioning adolescents (HFA) with autism. Participants were scanned using diffusion tensor imaging. Using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics, we created a mean white matter skeleton representing the centers of all tracts common to the group. From this, we computed axial, radial, and mean diffusivity (AD, RD, MD) maps and voxelwise regressions of age, scores from the Social Responsiveness Scale, and behavioral measures of face recognition on each diffusivity map. We found significant age-related changes in AD, but not RD or MD, in the right and left ILF and IFOF (inferior fronto-occiptical fasciculus), which was not present in a previous study with TD individuals, and may reflect increasing impairments in axonal transport with age. We also found a positive relation in these tracts between AD and SRS, which indicates that HFA adolescents with more severe symptoms may have more axonal damage in these tracts. These alterations in microstructural properties of key fiber tracts likely contribute to disruptions in face-processing behavior, and social behavior more broadly, in autism. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Journal of Vision | 2011

Developmental changes in encoding and the capacity to process face information.

Rebecca Von Der Heide; Michael J. Wenger; Rick O. Gilmore; Daniel Elbich


Journal of Vision | 2017

The Female Cambridge Face Memory Test (F-CFMT+)

Natalie V. Motta-Mena; Daniel Elbich; Bradley Duchaine; K. Suzanne Scherf


Journal of Vision | 2018

Still Rough Around the Edges – Effects of Age and Individual Differences on Neural Network Organization in Young Adults

Daniel Elbich; Suzy Scherf

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K. Suzanne Scherf

Pennsylvania State University

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Marlene Behrmann

Carnegie Mellon University

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Suzy Scherf

Pennsylvania State University

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Natalie V. Motta-Mena

Pennsylvania State University

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Elisabeth M. Whyte

Pennsylvania State University

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Charles F. Geier

Pennsylvania State University

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Giorgia Picci

Pennsylvania State University

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Indira C. Turney

Pennsylvania State University

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