Brain Development Imaging Laboratories, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California.
San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, California.
Autism Res. 2019 Sep;12(9):1344-1355. doi: 10.1002/aur.2171. Epub 2019 Jul 17.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders associated with atypical brain connectivity. Although language abilities vary widely, they are impaired or atypical in most children with ASDs. Underlying brain mechanisms, however, are not fully understood. The present study examined intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of the extended language network in a cohort of 52 children and adolescents with ASDs (ages 8-18 years), using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found that, in comparison to typically developing peers (n = 50), children with ASDs showed increased connectivity between some language regions. In addition, seed-to-whole brain analyses revealed increased connectivity of language regions with posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and visual regions in the ASD group. Post hoc effective connectivity analyses revealed a mediation effect of PCC on the iFC between bilateral inferior frontal and visual regions in an ASD subgroup. This finding qualifies and expands on previous reports of recruitment of visual areas in language processing in ASDs. In addition, increased iFC between PCC and visual regions was linked to lower language scores in this ASD subgroup, suggesting that increased connectivity with visual cortices, mediated by default mode regions, may be detrimental to language abilities. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1344-1355. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: We examined the functional connectivity between regions of the language network in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) compared to typically developing peers. We found connectivity to be intact between core language in the ASD group, but also showed abnormally increased connectivity between regions of an extended language network. Additionally, connectivity was increased with regions associated with brain networks responsible for self-reflection and visual processing.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是与非典型大脑连接相关的神经发育障碍。尽管语言能力差异很大，但大多数 ASD 儿童的语言能力受损或异常。然而，潜在的大脑机制尚未完全理解。本研究使用静息态功能磁共振成像，对 52 名患有 ASD（年龄 8-18 岁）的儿童和青少年的扩展语言网络的内在功能连接（iFC）进行了检查。与发育正常的同龄人（n=50）相比，我们发现 ASD 儿童的一些语言区域之间的连接增强。此外，种子到全脑分析显示，ASD 组的语言区域与后扣带回皮质（PCC）和视觉区域的连接增加。事后有效连接分析显示，在 ASD 亚组中，PCC 对双侧额下回和视觉区域之间的 iFC 存在中介作用。这一发现限定并扩展了以前关于 ASD 中语言处理中视觉区域的招募的报告。此外，PCC 与视觉区域之间增加的 iFC 与该 ASD 亚组的语言分数较低有关，这表明与默认模式区域相连的视觉皮质的连接增加可能对语言能力有害。自闭症研究 2019, 12: 1344-1355. © 2019 自闭症国际研究协会，威利期刊，公司。
