Sigar Priyanka, Uddin Lucina Q, Roy Dipanjan
Cognitive Brain Dynamics Lab, National Brain Research Center, Manesar, India.
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Autism Res. 2023 Jan;16(1):66-83. doi: 10.1002/aur.2840. Epub 2022 Nov 5.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by restricted interests and repetitive behaviors as well as social-communication deficits. These traits are associated with atypicality of functional brain networks. Modular organization in the brain plays a crucial role in network stability and adaptability for neurodevelopment. Previous neuroimaging research demonstrates discrepancies in studies of functional brain modular organization in ASD. These discrepancies result from the examination of mixed age groups. Furthermore, recent findings suggest that while much attention has been given to deriving atlases and measuring the connections between nodes, within node information may also be crucial in determining altered modular organization in ASD compared with typical development (TD). However, altered modular organization originating from systematic nodal changes are yet to be explored in younger children with ASD. Here, we used graph-theoretical measures to fill this knowledge gap. To this end, we utilized multicenter resting-state fMRI data collected from 5 to 10-year-old children-34 ASD and 40 TD obtained from the Autism Brain Image Data Exchange (ABIDE) I and II. We demonstrate that alterations in topological roles and modular cohesiveness are the two key properties of brain regions anchored in default mode, sensorimotor, and salience networks, and primarily relate to social and sensory deficits in children with ASD. These results demonstrate that atypical global network organization in children with ASD arises from nodal role changes, and contribute to the growing body of literature suggesting that there is interesting information within nodes providing critical markers of functional brain networks in autistic children.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种神经发育状况，其特征为兴趣受限、行为重复以及社交沟通缺陷。这些特征与功能性脑网络的异常有关。大脑中的模块化组织在神经发育的网络稳定性和适应性方面起着至关重要的作用。先前的神经影像学研究表明，在ASD功能性脑模块化组织的研究中存在差异。这些差异源于对混合年龄组的研究。此外，最近的研究结果表明，虽然人们对生成图谱和测量节点之间的连接给予了很多关注，但与典型发育（TD）相比，节点内信息在确定ASD中模块化组织的改变方面可能也至关重要。然而，源自系统性节点变化的模块化组织改变在患有ASD的年幼儿童中尚未得到探索。在这里，我们使用图论方法来填补这一知识空白。为此，我们利用了从5至10岁儿童收集的多中心静息态功能磁共振成像数据——从自闭症脑图像数据交换（ABIDE）I和II中获取的34名ASD儿童和40名TD儿童的数据。我们证明，拓扑角色和模块内聚性的改变是默认模式、感觉运动和突显网络中脑区的两个关键属性，并且主要与ASD儿童的社交和感觉缺陷有关。这些结果表明，ASD儿童中异常的全局网络组织源于节点角色的变化，并为越来越多的文献做出了贡献，这些文献表明节点内存在有趣的信息，这些信息为自闭症儿童功能性脑网络提供了关键标记。
