Regional Dynamic Neuroimaging Changes of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Most neuroimaging studies investigating autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have focused on static brain function, but ignored the dynamic features of spontaneous brain activities in the temporal dimension. Research of dynamic brain regional activities might help to fully investigate the mechanisms of ASD patients. This study aimed to examine potential changes in the dynamic characteristics of regional neural activities in adult ASD patients and to detect whether the changes were associated with Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores. Resting-state functional MRI was obtained on 77 adult ASD patients and 76 healthy controls. The dynamic regional homogeneity (dReHo) and dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFF) were compared between the two groups. Correlation analyses were also performed between dReHo and dALFF in areas showing group differences and ADOS scores. In ASD group, significant differences in dReHo were observed in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG.L). Besides, we found increased dALFF in the left middle occipital gyrus (MOG.L), left superior parietal gyrus (SPG.L), left precuneus (PCUN.L), left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.L), and right inferior frontal gyrus, orbital part (ORBinf.R). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between dALFF in the PCUN.L and the ADOS_TOTAL scores, ADOS_SOCIAL scores; the dALFF in the ITG.L, SPG.L was positively associated with ADOS_SOCIAL scores. In conclusion, adults with ASD have a wide area of dynamic regional brain function abnormalities. These suggested that dynamic regional indexes might be used as a powerful measure to help us obtain a more comprehensive understanding of neural activity in adult ASD patients.