School of Information Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China.
Hebei Key Laboratory of Information Transmission and Signal Processing, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China.
Autism Res. 2024 Sep;17(9):1796-1809. doi: 10.1002/aur.3227. Epub 2024 Sep 7.
Sex heterogeneity has been frequently reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and has been linked to static differences in brain function. However, given the complexity of ASD and diagnosis-by-sex interactions, dynamic characteristics of brain activity and functional connectivity may provide important information for distinguishing ASD phenotypes between females and males. The aim of this study was to explore sex heterogeneity of functional networks in the ASD brain from a dynamic perspective. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database were analyzed in 128 ASD subjects (64 males/64 females) and 128 typically developing control (TC) subjects (64 males/64 females). A sliding-window approach was adopted for the estimation of dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) and dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) to characterize time-varying brain activity and functional connectivity respectively. We then examined the sex-related changes in ASD using two-way analysis of variance. Significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction effects were identified in the left anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) and left precuneus in the dALFF analysis. Furthermore, there were significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction effects of dFC variance between the left ACC/mPFC and right ACC, left postcentral gyrus, left precuneus, right middle temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus, triangular part. These findings reveal the sex heterogeneity in brain activity and functional connectivity in ASD from a dynamic perspective, and provide new evidence for further exploring sex heterogeneity in ASD.
性别异质性在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中经常被报道，并与大脑功能的静态差异有关。然而，鉴于 ASD 的复杂性和按性别诊断的相互作用，大脑活动和功能连接的动态特征可能为区分女性和男性 ASD 表型提供重要信息。本研究旨在从动态角度探索 ASD 大脑功能网络的性别异质性。对自闭症大脑成像数据交换数据库中的 128 名 ASD 受试者（64 名男性/64 名女性）和 128 名典型发育对照受试者（64 名男性/64 名女性）的静息态功能磁共振成像数据进行了分析。采用滑动窗口方法分别估计动态低频波动幅度（dALFF）和动态功能连接（dFC），以分别描述时变脑活动和功能连接。然后，我们使用双向方差分析检查了 ASD 中的性别相关变化。在 dALFF 分析中，左前扣带回/内侧前额叶皮质（ACC/mPFC）和左楔前叶中发现了显著的诊断-性别交互作用效应。此外，左 ACC/mPFC 与右 ACC、左中央后回、左楔前叶、右颞中回和左额下回三角部之间的 dFC 方差存在显著的诊断-性别交互作用效应。这些发现从动态角度揭示了 ASD 中大脑活动和功能连接的性别异质性，为进一步探索 ASD 中的性别异质性提供了新的证据。
