The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Autism Res. 2021 Aug;14(8):1609-1620. doi: 10.1002/aur.2523. Epub 2021 Apr 28.
While several functional and structural changes occur in large-scale brain networks in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), reduced interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between homotopic regions may be of particular importance as a biomarker. ASD is an early-onset developmental disorder and neural alterations are often age-dependent. Although there is some evidence for homotopic interhemispheric rsFC alterations in language processing regions in ASD children, wider analyses using large data sets have not been performed. The present study, therefore, conducted a voxel-based homotopic interhemispheric rsFC analysis in 146 ASD and 175 typically developing children under-age 10 and examined associations with symptom severity in the autism brain imaging data exchange data sets. Given the role of corpus callosum (CC) in interhemispheric connectivity and reported CC volume changes in ASD we additionally examined whether there were parallel volumetric changes. Results demonstrated decreased homotopic rsFC in ASD children in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and precuneus of the default mode network, the precentral gyrus of the mirror neuron system, and the caudate of the reward system. Homotopic rsFC of the PCC was associated with symptom severity. Furthermore, although no significant CC volume changes were found in ASD children, there was a significant negative correlation between the anterior CC volumes and homotopic rsFC strengths in the caudate. The present study shows that a reduced pattern of homotopic interhemispheric rsFC in ASD adults/adolescents is already present in children of 5-10 years old and further supports their potential use as a general ASD biomarker. LAY SUMMARY: Homotopic interhemispheric functional connectivity plays an important role in synchronizing activity between the two hemispheres and is altered in adults and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the present study focused on children with ASD, we have observed a similar pattern of decreased homotopic connectivity, suggesting that alterations in homotopic interhemispheric connectivity may occur early in ASD and be a useful general biomarker across ages.
虽然自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 中大脑的大规模网络会发生几种功能和结构变化，但同型区域之间的静息状态功能连接 (rsFC) 减少可能是一个特别重要的生物标志物。ASD 是一种早期发病的发育障碍，神经改变通常与年龄有关。虽然有一些证据表明 ASD 儿童的语言处理区域存在同型半球间 rsFC 改变，但使用大数据集进行更广泛的分析尚未进行。因此，本研究在 146 名 ASD 和 175 名年龄在 10 岁以下的正常发育儿童中进行了基于体素的同型半球间 rsFC 分析，并在自闭症脑成像数据交换数据集检查了与症状严重程度的关联。鉴于胼胝体 (CC) 在半球间连接中的作用以及 ASD 中报道的 CC 体积变化，我们还检查了是否存在平行的体积变化。结果表明，ASD 儿童在后扣带回皮层 (PCC) 和默认模式网络的楔前叶、镜像神经元系统的中央前回以及奖励系统的尾状核中同型 rsFC 减少。PCC 的同型 rsFC 与症状严重程度有关。此外，尽管在 ASD 儿童中未发现明显的 CC 体积变化，但在尾状核中，CC 的前体体积与同型 rsFC 强度之间存在显著的负相关。本研究表明，ASD 成人/青少年中同型半球间 rsFC 的减少模式在 5-10 岁的儿童中已经存在，并进一步支持其作为一般 ASD 生物标志物的潜在用途。
