| Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD)is a group of neurodevelopmental Disorders whose primary clinical features are defects of social communication and repetitive behavioral interests.A common hypothesis is that the abnormal structure and function of the social brain network is the basis of social dysfunction in people with ASD.Some researches based on task functional magnetic resonance imaging,resting-state functional magnetic resonance(rfMRI)imaging and structural magnetic resonance imaging(sMRI)have verified this hypothesis to some extent.However,previous studies based on restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging are mostly based on functional connectivity and lack of evidence for directed network dysfunction in social brain.In addition,most of the studies based on structural magnetic resonance imaging also focus on the structural information abnormalities in specific areas of the social brain,while there are few studies on the synergistic changes of social brain circuits from the perspective of development.We will start from two perspectives: directed functional network and structural covariant network.on the one hand,based on the rfMRI data,explore abnormities directed casual connectivity within social brain in children with ASD,on the other hand,based on sMRI data,to depict social brain structure covariant network patterns in children with ASD.The main content of this article includes the following two parts:A term-based meta-analysis was applied to define the “social brain network” regions,including medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC),Posterior superior temporal sulcus(pSTS),precuneus,inferior frontal gyrus(IFG),fusiform gyrus(FFG),frontal-insula cortex(FIC),and amygdala.Granger causality analysis was employed to asses the casual connectivity within the social brain network.Our results show that,compared to typically developing children,positive causal connections between the medial prefrontal lobe and bilateral amygdala are significantly reduced in children with ASD.And the abnormal causal connectivity in children with ASD are a good predictor of clinical scores of social dysfunction.Our causal connectivity results confirm and extend the previous results of abnormal mPFC-amygdala pathway in autistic patients to the directed dysfunction pathway of the social brain network,which may be the core basis of social deficits in autistic children and provide a new pathway for early intervention and treatment of autism.The voxel-based morphometry(VBM)and the structure covariance were used to explore the variation of covariant network pattern within social brain in children with ASDand its relationship with the clinical symptom scores of ASD.Our results show that,compared to typically developing children,there are widespread abnormalities in the structural covariant network pattern between the social brain network areas of children with ASD.The structure covariance pattern between the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior superior temporal sulcus and other areas of the social brain network being mainly reduced.And there was a significant correlation between thess reduced structural covariance and the scores of communication in children with ASD.This may be caused by structural abnormalities in the medial prefrontal cortex which is the core of the multichannel sensory system.Our research extends the perspective to the synergy of structural development and reveals the sturctural basis of the abnormities of social brain network..To sum up,this paper provides a new perspective for understanding the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of social dysfunction in children with ASD form the perspectives od directed functional networks and structure covriance network in social brian.Both revealed that the abnormality of medial prefrontal lobe plays an important role in social defects in children with ASD.Our research further validates the social brain abnormality hypothesis of ASD from different perspectives and provides powerful evidence for early intervention and treatment of ASD. |
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