Age, Disease, and Their Interaction Effects on Intrinsic Connectivity of Children and Adolescents in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Functional Connectomics
Abstract
Brain connectivity analysis has provided crucial insights to pinpoint the differences between autistic and typically developing (TD) children during development. The aim of this study is to investigate the functional connectomics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus TD and underpin the effects of development, disease, and their interactions on the observed atypical brain connectivity patterns. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) data set, which is stratified into two cohorts: children (9-12 years) and adolescents (13-16 years), is used for the analysis. Differences in various graph theoretical network measures are calculated between ASD and TD in each group. Furthermore, two-factor analysis of variance test is used to study the effect of age, disease, and their interaction on the network measures and the network edges. Furthermore, the differences in connection strength between TD and ASD subjects are assessed using network-based statistics. The results showed that ASD exhibits increased functional integration at the expense of decreased functional segregation. In ASD adolescents, there is a significant decrease in modularity suggesting a less rob...Continue Reading
References
The idiosyncratic brain: distortion of spontaneous connectivity patterns in autism spectrum disorder
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Autism spectrum disorder is associated with challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and often accompanied by sensory sensitivities and medical issues. Here is the latest research on autism.