Shen Guannan, Green Heather L, McNamee Marybeth, Franzen Rose E, DiPiero Marissa, Berman Jeffrey I, Ku Matthew, Bloy Luke, Liu Song, Airey Megan, Goldin Sophia, Blaskey Lisa, Kuschner Emily S, Kim Mina, Konka Kimberly, Miller Gregory A, Edgar J Christopher
Lurie Family Foundations MEG Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Mol Autism. 2025 Mar 11;16(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s13229-025-00646-4.
We and others have demonstrated the resting-state (RS) peak alpha frequency (PAF) as a potential clinical marker for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with previous studies observing a higher PAF in school-age children with ASD versus typically developing (TD) children, as well as an association between the RS PAF and measures of processing speed in TD but not ASD. The brain mechanisms associated with these findings are unknown. A few studies have found that in children more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher PAF. Other studies have reported white matter and neural activity associations in TD but not ASD. The present study hypothesized that group differences in the RS PAF are due, in part, to group differences in optic radiation white matter and PAF associations. The maturation of the RS PAF (measured using magnetoencephalography(MEG)), optic radiation white matter (measured using diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)), and associations with processing speed were assessed in a longitudinal cohort of TD and ASD children. Time 1 MEG and DTI measures were obtained at 6-8 years old (59TD and 56ASD) with follow-up brain measures collected ~ 1.5 and ~ 3 years later. The parietal-occipital PAF increased with age in both groups by 0.13 Hz/year, with a main effect of group showing the expected higher PAF in ASD than TD (an average of 0.26 Hz across the 3 time points). Across age, the RS PAF predicted processing speed in TD but not ASD. Finally, more mature optic radiation white matter measures (FA, RD, MD, AD) were associated with a higher PAF in both groups. Present findings provide additional evidence supporting the use of the RS PAF as a brain marker in children with ASD 6-10 years old, and replicate findings of an association between the RS PAF and processing speed in TD but not ASD. The hypothesis that the RS PAF group differences (with ASD leading TD by about 2 years) would be explained by group differences in optic radiation white matter was not supported, with brain structure-function associations indicating that more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher RS PAF in both groups.
我们和其他研究人员已证明静息态（RS）峰值阿尔法频率（PAF）可作为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）幼儿的一种潜在临床标志物。先前的研究观察到，与发育正常（TD）的儿童相比，ASD学龄儿童的PAF更高，而且在TD儿童中RS PAF与处理速度指标之间存在关联，而在ASD儿童中则不然。与这些发现相关的脑机制尚不清楚。一些研究发现，在儿童中，更成熟的视辐射白质与更高的PAF相关。其他研究报告了TD儿童白质与神经活动之间的关联，而ASD儿童则没有。本研究假设，RS PAF的组间差异部分归因于视辐射白质和PAF关联的组间差异。在TD和ASD儿童的纵向队列中，评估了RS PAF（使用脑磁图（MEG）测量）、视辐射白质（使用扩散张量成像（DTI）测量）的成熟情况以及与处理速度的关联。在6至8岁时获得了第一次MEG和DTI测量数据（59名TD儿童和56名ASD儿童），并在大约1.5年和3年后收集了后续的脑部测量数据。两组的顶枕部PAF均随年龄增长，每年增加0.13Hz，组间的主要效应表明，ASD儿童的PAF高于TD儿童（在3个时间点的平均值为0.26Hz）。在整个年龄段，RS PAF预测了TD儿童的处理速度，但不能预测ASD儿童的处理速度。最后，两组中更成熟的视辐射白质测量值（FA、RD、MD、AD）均与更高的PAF相关。目前的研究结果提供了更多证据，支持将RS PAF用作6至10岁ASD儿童的脑标志物，并重复了RS PAF与TD儿童而非ASD儿童的处理速度之间存在关联的研究结果。关于RS PAF组间差异（ASD比TD领先约2年）将由视辐射白质的组间差异来解释的假设未得到支持，脑结构-功能关联表明，两组中更成熟的视辐射白质均与更高的RS PAF相关。
