Detection of atypical network development patterns in children with autism spectrum disorder using magnetoencephalography

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that involves developmental delays. It has been hypothesized that aberrant neural connectivity in ASD may cause atypical brain network development. Brain graphs not only describe the differences in brain networks between clinical and control groups, but also provide information about network development within each group. In the present study, graph indices of brain networks were estimated in children with ASD and in typically developing (TD) children using magnetoencephalography performed while the children viewed a cartoon video. We examined brain graphs from a developmental point of view, and compared the networks between children with ASD and TD children. Network development patterns (NDPs) were assessed by examining the association between the graph indices and the raw scores on the achievement scale or the age of the children. The ASD and TD groups exhibited different NDPs at both network and nodal levels. In the left frontal areas, the nodal degree and efficiency of the ASD group were negatively correlated with the achievement scores. Reduced network connections were observed in the temporal and posterior areas of TD children. These results suggested that the atypical network developmental trajectory in children with ASD is associated with the development score rather than age.

The Development of Brain Network in Males with Autism Spectrum Disorders from Childhood to Adolescence: Evidence from fNIRS Study

“…Though previous studies have reported atypical development of global and local efficiency of children and adolescents with ASD [18,19,46], neither significant interactions between age and/or age-squared and diagnosis in global and local efficiency nor significant main effect of diagnosis were identified. Though one study found no significant age effect of functional connectivity and network topologies in the ToM network from childhood to adolescence during a social evaluation task, it was suggested that the organization of the social brain was largely set by childhood and did not undergo a large development during adolescence [47].…”