Brain Functional Alterations in Prepubertal Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Overview

Journal Front Hum Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2022 Jun 6

PMID 35664346

Authors

Xipeng Yue

Ge Zhang

Xiaochen Li

Yu Shen

Wei Wei

Yan Bai

Yu Luo

Huanhuan Wei

Ziqiang Li

Xianchang Zhang

Meiyun Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: Abnormal brain function in ASD patients changes dynamically across developmental stages. However, no one has studied the brain function of prepubertal children with ASD. Prepuberty is an important stage for children's socialization. This study aimed to investigate alterations in local spontaneous brain activity in prepubertal boys with ASD.

Materials And Methods: Measures of the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) acquired from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) database, including 34 boys with ASD and 49 typically developing (TD) boys aged 7 to 10 years, were used to detect regional brain activity. Pearson correlation analyses were conducted on the relationship between abnormal ALFF and ReHo values and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) scores.

Results: In the ASD group, we found decreased ALFF in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and decreased ReHo in the left lingual gyrus (LG), left superior temporal gyrus (STG), left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), and right cuneus ( < 0.05, FDR correction). There were negative correlations between ReHo values in the left LG and left STG and the ADOS social affect score and a negative correlation between ReHo values in the left STG and the calibrated severity total ADOS score.

Conclusion: Brain regions with functional abnormalities, including the left IPL, left LG, left STG, left MOG, and right cuneus may be crucial in the neuropathology of prepubertal boys with ASD. Furthermore, ReHo abnormalities in the left LG and left STG were correlated with sociality. These results will supplement the study of neural mechanisms in ASD at different developmental stages, and be helpful in exploring the neural mechanisms of prepubertal boys with ASD.

Citing Articles

Reduced local functional connectivity correlates with atypical performances in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Ye F, Hu P, Yang A, Du L, Xu X, Liu J Brain Imaging Behav. 2025; .

PMID: 40047998 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-025-00990-2.

Altered Temporospatial Variability of Dynamic Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Guo X, Wang X, Zhou R, Cui D, Liu J, Gao L J Autism Dev Disord. 2024; .

PMID: 39663323 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06661-3.

Links between brain structure and function in children with autism spectrum disorder by parallel independent component analysis.

Lu H, Wang S, Gao L, Xue Z, Liu J, Niu X Brain Imaging Behav. 2024; 19(1):124-137.

PMID: 39565558 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-024-00957-9.

Impaired effective functional connectivity in the social preference of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Deng S, Tan S, Guo C, Liu Y, Li X Front Neurosci. 2024; 18:1391191.

PMID: 38872942 PMC: 11169607. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1391191.

Specific brain imaging alterations underlying autistic traits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Liu J, Liu Q, Wu Z, Chen Q, Chen J, Wang Y Behav Brain Funct. 2023; 19(1):20.

PMID: 37986005 PMC: 10658985. DOI: 10.1186/s12993-023-00222-x.

References

Stormshak E, Connell A, Veronneau M, Myers M, Dishion T, Kavanagh K . An ecological approach to promoting early adolescent mental health and social adaptation: family-centered intervention in public middle schools. Child Dev. 2011; 82(1):209-25. PMC: 3035851. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01551.x. View

Kukolja J, Goreci D, Onur O, Riedl V, Fink G . Resting-state fMRI evidence for early episodic memory consolidation: effects of age. Neurobiol Aging. 2016; 45:197-211. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.06.004. View

Yan C, Wang X, Zuo X, Zang Y . DPABI: Data Processing & Analysis for (Resting-State) Brain Imaging. Neuroinformatics. 2016; 14(3):339-51. DOI: 10.1007/s12021-016-9299-4. View

Arslan D, Gurvit H, Genc O, Kicik A, Eryurek K, Cengiz S . The cerebral blood flow deficits in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment using arterial spin labeling MRI. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2020; 127(9):1285-1294. DOI: 10.1007/s00702-020-02227-6. View

Wichers R, Findon J, Jelsma A, Giampietro V, Stoencheva V, Robertson D . Modulation of atypical brain activation during executive functioning in autism: a pharmacological MRI study of tianeptine. Mol Autism. 2021; 12(1):14. PMC: 7893772. DOI: 10.1186/s13229-021-00422-0. View

Zhang H, Sachdev P, Wen W, Kochan N, Crawford J, Brodaty H . Gray matter atrophy patterns of mild cognitive impairment subtypes. J Neurol Sci. 2012; 315(1-2):26-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2011.12.011. View

Kana R, Sartin E, Stevens Jr C, Deshpande H, Klein C, Klinger M . Neural networks underlying language and social cognition during self-other processing in Autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia. 2017; 102:116-123. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.06.008. View

Shukla D, Keehn B, Muller R . Regional homogeneity of fMRI time series in autism spectrum disorders. Neurosci Lett. 2010; 476(1):46-51. PMC: 2879288. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.03.080. View

Lai M, Lombardo M, Auyeung B, Chakrabarti B, Baron-Cohen S . Sex/gender differences and autism: setting the scene for future research. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2014; 54(1):11-24. PMC: 4284309. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2014.10.003. View

10.

Liao X, Yuan Q, Shi W, Li B, Su T, Lin Q . ALTERED BRAIN ACTIVITY IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETIC RETINOPATHY USING REGIONAL HOMOGENEITY: A RESTING-STATE fMRI STUDY. Endocr Pract. 2019; 25(4):320-327. DOI: 10.4158/EP-2018-0517. View

11.

Lan Z, Xu S, Wu Y, Xia L, Hua K, Li M . Alterations of Regional Homogeneity in Preschool Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Front Neurosci. 2021; 15:644543. PMC: 8019812. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.644543. View

12.

Zhu J, Jin Y, Wang K, Zhou Y, Feng Y, Yu M . Frequency-dependent changes in the regional amplitude and synchronization of resting-state functional MRI in stroke. PLoS One. 2015; 10(4):e0123850. PMC: 4401774. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123850. View

13.

Marrero H, Yagual S, Garcia-Marco E, Gamez E, Beltran D, Diaz J . Enhancing Memory for Relationship Actions by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Superior Temporal Sulcus. Brain Sci. 2020; 10(8). PMC: 7463881. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10080497. View

14.

Achterberg M, van Duijvenvoorde A, van der Meulen M, Euser S, Bakermans-Kranenburg M, Crone E . The neural and behavioral correlates of social evaluation in childhood. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2017; 24:107-117. PMC: 6987809. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2017.02.007. View

15.

Mitelman S, Bralet M, Haznedar M, Hollander E, Shihabuddin L, Hazlett E . Positron emission tomography assessment of cerebral glucose metabolic rates in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Brain Imaging Behav. 2017; 12(2):532-546. PMC: 5648637. DOI: 10.1007/s11682-017-9721-z. View

16.

DeRamus T, Kana R . Anatomical likelihood estimation meta-analysis of grey and white matter anomalies in autism spectrum disorders. Neuroimage Clin. 2015; 7:525-36. PMC: 4375647. DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.11.004. View

17.

Su T, Gong J, Tang G, Qiu S, Chen P, Chen G . Structural and functional brain alterations in anorexia nervosa:A multimodal meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp. 2021; 42(15):5154-5169. PMC: 8449099. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25602. View

18.

Redcay E, Courchesne E . Deviant functional magnetic resonance imaging patterns of brain activity to speech in 2-3-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2008; 64(7):589-98. PMC: 2879340. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.05.020. View

19.

Yang X, Huang J, Lan Y, Zhu C, Liu X, Wang Y . Diminished caudate and superior temporal gyrus responses to effort-based decision making in patients with first-episode major depressive disorder. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2015; 64:52-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2015.07.006. View

20.

Bohlhalter S, Hattori N, Wheaton L, Fridman E, Shamim E, Garraux G . Gesture subtype-dependent left lateralization of praxis planning: an event-related fMRI study. Cereb Cortex. 2008; 19(6):1256-62. PMC: 2677648. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn168. View