Dynamic alterations of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Numerous studies showed autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a socio-cognitive and neurodevelopmental disorder together with disturbed static brain activity. However, little is known about alterations of dynamic brain activity and its associations with social behavior in ASD. In this study, the dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) based on sliding-window technique was applied to the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 91 adolescents with ASD and 122 age-matched typically developing controls (TDC group), which obtained from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) repository. We found that the increased dALFF variance in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) was detected in adolescent ASD relative to TDC, which is positively correlated with communication deficits. Our findings reveal that atypical dynamic brain activity in MTG is associated with social deficits in ASD. Results also highlight the crucial role of MTG in the social-cognitive deficits of ASD and provide a novel insight into understanding dynamic pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying ASD.