Li Haonan, Han Mingxing, Tang Shaoting, Yang Yaqian
School of Medical Imaging, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai.
Medical Imaging Center, The Affiliated Taian City Central Hospital of Qingdao University, Taian.
Neuroreport. 2025 Mar 5;36(4):202-210. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000002139. Epub 2025 Feb 12.
To date, most studies on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have focused on specific age ranges, while the mechanisms underlying the entire developmental process of autism patients remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the alterations in brain function in autistic individuals at different developmental stages by resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). We obtained rs-fMRI data from 173 ASD and 178 typical development (TD) individuals in Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, spanning child, adolescent, and adult groups. We characterized local brain activity using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), regional homogeneity (ReHo), dynamic ALFF (dALFF), and dynamic ReHo (dReHo) metrics. Pearson correlation analyses were conducted on relationships between Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores and activity measures in abnormal brain regions. We found abnormal ALFF values in the medial and lateral orbitofrontal gyrus and right insula cortex with ASD compared with the TD group. In addition, compared with adolescents with ASD, we found that adults with ASD exhibited an increase in dReHo values in the posterior lateral frontal lobe. We also found that changes in ALFF were associated with the severity of autism. We found abnormal activity in multiple brain regions in individuals with autism and correlated it with clinical characteristics. Our results may provide some help for further exploring the age-related neurobiological mechanisms of ASD patients.
迄今为止，大多数关于自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的研究都集中在特定年龄范围，而自闭症患者整个发育过程的潜在机制仍不清楚。本研究的目的是通过静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）研究自闭症个体在不同发育阶段的脑功能变化。我们从自闭症脑成像数据交换项目中获取了173名自闭症谱系障碍患者和178名典型发育（TD）个体的rs-fMRI数据，涵盖儿童、青少年和成人组。我们使用低频振幅（ALFF）、局部一致性（ReHo）、动态ALFF（dALFF）和动态ReHo（dReHo）指标来表征局部脑活动。对自闭症诊断观察量表得分与异常脑区活动测量值之间的关系进行了Pearson相关分析。与TD组相比，我们发现ASD患者的内侧和外侧眶额回以及右侧岛叶皮质的ALFF值异常。此外，与ASD青少年相比，我们发现ASD成人患者的后外侧额叶dReHo值增加。我们还发现ALFF的变化与自闭症的严重程度相关。我们发现自闭症患者多个脑区存在异常活动，并将其与临床特征相关联。我们的结果可能为进一步探索ASD患者与年龄相关的神经生物学机制提供一些帮助。
