Ricerc@Sapienza

Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) is a clinically complex and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition typically characterized by core deficits in social interaction (Goldson et al. 2016). ASD social dysfunctions have been associated with impairment in the first stage of emotional processing (Kana et al., 2016) and a regulatory imbalance of autonomic functions (Porges, 1995). In recent years, the classical view of the cerebellum as being primarily involved in motor control has been widely questioned due to the identification of neural circuits between the cerebellum and subcortical areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for controlling higher-order functions , including cognitive, affective/emotional and social domains. Due to its connections with the limbic system, the cerebellum, and in particular its vermal portion, has been implicated in the modulation of autonomic reactions and in the automatic component of emotional processing, i.e the emotion recognition (ER) (Clausi et al. 2017; Sacchetti et al. 2005). According to existing research, the hypothesis is that the cerebellum may have a role in vagally-mediated autonomic dysregulation in ASD and subsequent difficulties in attenuating the autonomic reactivity to stimuli during implicit emotional processing, impairing social adaptation. Specifically, we hypothesize that the ASD emotional dysregulation could be a consequence of a complex alteration of the autonomic neuronal network in which the cerebellum acts. To investigate this hypothesis an integrated behavioural, neuroimaging and physiological approach will be used. Furthermore, considering the emerging findings about the improvement effect of the cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on ER (Ferrucci et al. 2012), we postulate that the tDCS modulation of the cerebellar excitability could influence the implicit and automatic emotional processing operated by the cerebellum, opening new avenues for ASD intervention.