Atypical developmental trajectory of local spontaneous brain activity in autism spectrum disorder

• DOI: 10.1038/srep39822
• Publication Date: 2017-01-06T10:00:34Z
• Authors: Xiaonan Guo; Heng Chen; Zhiliang Long; Xujun Duan; Youxue Zhang; Huafu Chen
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Adolescent; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Prefrontal Cortex; Brain Waves; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Article; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Humans; Female; Child

Abstract Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by atypical trajectory of brain maturation, yet the developmental abnormalities in function remain unclear. The current study examined effect age on amplitude low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) ASD and typical controls (TC) using a cross-sectional design. We classified all participants into three cohorts: child (<11 years, 18ASD/20TC), adolescent (11–18 28ASD/26TC) adult (≥18 18ASD/18TC). Two-way analysis variance (ANOVA) was performed to ascertain main effects interaction whole ALFF maps. Results exhibited significant diagnosis with decreased right precuneus left middle occipital gyrus during stages. Significant diagnosis-by-age observed medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) lowered autistic children but highered adolescents adults. Specifically, remarkable quadratic change increasing mPFC presented TC group absent ASD. Additionally, abnormal values diagnosis-related regions predicted social deficits Our findings indicated aberrant patterns spontaneous activity associated highlight crucial role default mode network development disease.