Cerebro-cerebellar Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder - PubMed (original) (raw)

Cerebro-cerebellar Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Amanda J Khan et al. Biol Psychiatry. 2015.

Abstract

Background: The cerebellum plays important roles in sensori-motor and supramodal cognitive functions. Cellular, volumetric, and functional abnormalities of the cerebellum have been found in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but no comprehensive investigation of cerebro-cerebellar connectivity in ASD is available.

Methods: We used resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging in 56 children and adolescents (28 subjects with ASD, 28 typically developing subjects) 8-17 years old. Partial and total correlation analyses were performed for unilateral regions of interest (ROIs), distinguished in two broad domains as sensori-motor (premotor/primary motor, somatosensory, superior temporal, and occipital) and supramodal (prefrontal, posterior parietal, and inferior and middle temporal).

Results: There were three main findings: 1) Total correlation analyses showed predominant cerebro-cerebellar functional overconnectivity in the ASD group; 2) partial correlation analyses that emphasized domain specificity (sensori-motor vs. supramodal) indicated a pattern of robustly increased connectivity in the ASD group (compared with the typically developing group) for sensori-motor ROIs but predominantly reduced connectivity for supramodal ROIs; and 3) this atypical pattern of connectivity was supported by significantly increased noncanonical connections (between sensori-motor cerebral and supramodal cerebellar ROIs and vice versa) in the ASD group.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that sensori-motor intrinsic functional connectivity is atypically increased in ASD, at the expense of connectivity supporting cerebellar participation in supramodal cognition.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Cerebellum; Cerebrum; Functional connectivity; MRI; Sensori-motor; Supramodal.

Copyright © 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Cerebro-cerebellar intrinsic functional connectivity maps from partial correlation analyses by cortical seed and group (p<.05, corr.). Cortical seeds in the center are shown in right hemisphere overlay only. For each unilateral cortical seed, only effects in contralateral cerebellum are shown. For example, effects for left PMC are depicted in right cerebellum, those for right PMC are depicted in left cerebellum, and both overlays are merged in each panel. Effects are shown for sensorimotor ROIs in (A), for supramodal ROIs in (B), and for ROIs combined by type in (C). PMC, premotor and primary motor cortices; S1, somatosensory cortex; STC, superior temporal cortex; OCC, occipital lobe; PFC, prefrontal cortex; PPC, posterior parietal cortex; IMT, inferior and middle temporal gyri.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Between-group effects by cortical seed and group (p<.05, corr.). Seeds are shown in (A). In (B), effects for partial correlation are shown analogous to Figure 1. Effects for total correlation (C) are shown separately for left and right hemispheric seeds. On these maps, effects for unilateral cortical seeds are shown in bilateral cerebellum (as explained in main text). Positive t-scores (warm colors) indicate greater FC in the ASD group, negative t-scores (cool colors) indicate greater FC in the TD group.

Figure 3

Figure 3

FCMRI effects by connectivity type. While both groups show similarly high levels of canonical connectivity, the ASD group shows significantly greater non-canonical connectivity than the TD group (*, p<.05). Error bars display standard error of the mean.

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