Abstract
Neuroimaging has revealed numerous atypical functional connectivity of default mode network (DMN) dedicated to social communications (SC) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet their nature and directionality remain unclear. Here, preschoolers with autism received physical intervention from a 12-week mini-basketball training program (12W-MBTP). Therefore, the directionality and nature of regional interactions within the DMN after the intervention are evaluated while assessing the impact of an intervention on SC. Based on the results of independent component analysis (ICA), we applied spectral dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for participants aged 3–6 years (experimental group, N = 17, control group, N = 14) to characterize the longitudinal changes following intervention in intrinsic and extrinsic effective connectivity (EC) between core regions of the DMN. Then, we analyzed the correlation between the changes in EC and SRS-2 scores to establish symptom-based validation. We found that after the 12W-MBTP intervention, the SRS-2 score of preschoolers with ASD in the experimental group was decreased. Concurrently, the inhibitory directional connections were observed between the core regions of the DMN, including increased self-inhibition in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and the changes of EC in mPFC were significantly correlated with change in the social responsiveness scale-2 (SRS-2) score. These new findings shed light on DMN as a potential intervention target, as the inhibitory information transmission between its core regions may play a positive role in improving SC behavior in preschoolers with ASD, which may be a reliable neuroimaging biomarker for future studies.Clinical Trial Registration: This study registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900024973) on August 05, 2019.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disability (Lord and Bishop, 2015) that emerges in the early stages of life, often severely impairs daily life functions, and is generally associated with life-long disability (Howlin et al, 2004)
Follow-up simple effect analysis indicated that the social responsiveness scale-2 (SRS-2) total score of the experimental group at the post-test were significantly lower relative to baseline [F(1,29) = 4.586, p = 0.041], whereas such a positive effect was not found in the control group [F(1,29) = 4.240, p = 0.049]
Group × time interaction effect was only observed in the three subscales (social cognition, social communication, and autistic mannerisms: F(1,29) = 8.258, 9.537, 4.993, p = 0.008, 0.004, 0.033, respectively]
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disability (Lord and Bishop, 2015) that emerges in the early stages of life, often severely impairs daily life functions, and is generally associated with life-long disability (Howlin et al, 2004). ASD is primarily manifested as persistent impairments in social communications (SC) and the presence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities. Despite heterogeneity in behavioral manifestations across sensory and other domains, impaired SC is a core feature of autism (Pelphrey et al, 2011; Xiao et al, 2021). SC deficits in individuals with ASD often result in exclusion from social interactions (Bolling et al, 2011), contributing to a perception of being “lost in one’s narrow world” due to the lack of initial motivation for social communications and interactions and initiating a vicious cycle. The terrible suffering of individuals and families contributes to ASD being a major public health concern (Maenner et al, 2020). Timely intervention is important for the healthy development of preschoolers with ASD who are in a critical period of brain development
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