Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital of Oulu, PO Box 50, 90029 Oulu, Finland.
Brain Res. 2010 Mar 19;1321:169-79. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.12.081. Epub 2010 Jan 4.
Measures assessing resting-state brain activity with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can reveal cognitive disorders at an early stage. Analysis of regional homogeneity (ReHo) measures the local synchronization of spontaneous fMRI signals and has been successfully utilized in detecting alterations in subjects with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dementia. Resting-state brain activity was investigated in 28 adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 27 typically developing controls being imaged with BOLD fMRI and analyzed with the ReHo method. The hypothesis was that ReHo of resting-state brain activity would be different between ASD subjects and controls in brain areas previously shown to display functional alterations in stimulus or task based fMRI studies. Compared with the controls, the subjects with ASD had significantly decreased ReHo in right superior temporal sulcus region, right inferior and middle frontal gyri, bilateral cerebellar crus I, right insula and right postcentral gyrus. Significantly increased ReHo was discovered in right thalamus, left inferior frontal and anterior subcallosal gyrus and bilateral cerebellar lobule VIII. We conclude that subjects with ASD have right dominant ReHo alterations of resting-state brain activity, i.e., areas known to exhibit abnormal stimulus or task related functionality. Our results demonstrate that there is potential in utilizing the ReHo method in fMRI analyses of ASD.
采用血氧水平依赖（BOLD）功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量静息态脑活动的方法可以在早期发现认知障碍。局部一致性（ReHo）分析测量了自发 fMRI 信号的局部同步性，已成功用于检测注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）、抑郁症、精神分裂症、帕金森病和阿尔茨海默病患者的变化。对 28 名自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）青少年和 27 名正常发育对照者进行了静息态脑功能磁共振成像（BOLD fMRI）扫描，并采用 ReHo 方法进行分析。假设是，在先前基于刺激或任务的 fMRI 研究中显示功能改变的脑区，ASD 受试者与对照组之间静息态脑活动的 ReHo 会有所不同。与对照组相比，ASD 受试者右侧颞上回、右侧额中回和额下回、双侧小脑脚 I、右侧岛叶和右侧中央后回的 ReHo 明显降低。右侧丘脑、左侧额下回和前连合下区以及双侧小脑小叶 VIII 的 ReHo 明显增加。我们得出结论，ASD 受试者的静息态脑活动存在右优势 ReHo 改变，即已知存在异常刺激或任务相关功能的区域。我们的研究结果表明，在 ASD 的 fMRI 分析中，ReHo 方法具有一定的应用潜力。
