Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder, characterized by impairments in one's capacity for joint attention. In this study, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was applied to study the differences in activation and functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children. 21 ASD and 20 TD children were recruited to perform joint and non-joint attention tasks. Compared with TD children, children with ASD showed reduced activation and atypical functional connectivity pattern in the prefrontal cortex during joint attention. The atypical development of left prefrontal cortex might play an important role in social cognition defects of children with ASD.
Highlights
Functional near infrared spectroscopy, as a non-invasive optical method for brain imaging, measures cerebral hemodynamic parameters closely reflecting the neuronal activity through neurovascular coupling [1,2,3]. functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has high temporal resolution and reasonable#225833 - $15.00 USD Received 6 Nov 2014; revised 15 Jan 2015; accepted 22 Jan 2015; published 3 Feb 2015 spatial resolution
The atypical development of left prefrontal cortex might play an important role in social cognition defects of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
These results imply that the atypical prefrontal cortical activation and connectivity pattern may be related to the impairment of joint attention in autism spectrum disorder
Summary
Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), as a non-invasive optical method for brain imaging, measures cerebral hemodynamic parameters closely reflecting the neuronal activity through neurovascular coupling [1,2,3]. fNIRS has high temporal resolution and reasonable#225833 - $15.00 USD Received 6 Nov 2014; revised 15 Jan 2015; accepted 22 Jan 2015; published 3 Feb 2015 spatial resolution. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a brain developmental disorder, characterized by impaired social interactions, communication deficits, restricted interests and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors [4]. It is marked by degeneration in joint attention as early on as 8–15 months of age [5]. Joint attention is a process whereby two individuals share the focus of attention on the same object or event as one is following the gaze or pointing gestures of the other This is critical for the development of social, language and cognitive abilities, so the neuroimaging studies of joint attention are crucial for understanding autism spectrum disorder deeply [6,7]
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