| Background:Autism spectrum disorder(ASD)is a neurodevelopmental disorder with complex etiology.Recent survey data showed that the prevalence of ASD was sharply increasing.In this context,the rehabilitation of children with ASD had attracted more attention from all walks of life.Social communication disorder is one of the core symptoms of ASD.Studies had proved that social communication disorder affected every aspect of children’s individual development.Improving social disorder had always been considered as the top priority in rehabilitation treatment.At present,various rehabilitation methods related to social disorder of ASD have achieved certain rehabilitation effects.Among them,exercise intervention has been widely carried out and applied in ASD rehabilitation due to its unique advantages of easy implementation,easy popularization and low cost There is limited evidence on the neural mechanisms for improving social communication disorder,while there have been fruitful studies results on improving social communication disorder by exercise intervention.Specifically,the characteristics of the brain functional network of improving social communication disorder in children with ASD have not been clarified.Objective:In this study,12 weeks of mini-basketball training program(12-week MBTP)was used as an exercise intervention method,and behavioral measurement tools and brain imaging techniques were comprehensively used to investigate the functional differentiation and integration characteristics of brain networks in preschool children with ASD.,This study revisited the neural mechanisms responsible for improving social communication disorders in children with ASD by exercise interventions from the perspective of functional differentiation and integration of brain networks.Methods:In this study,preschool children with ASD were selected as research subjects.Yangzhou Chuying Child Development Center and Xinghang Child Potential Development Center were selected as experimental group and control group.Eventually,34 children with ASD were finally included in this study,including 19 children in the experimental group and 15 children in the control group.The children with ASD in the control group only received routine rehabilitation in the rehabilitation facility,while the children with ASD in the experimental group received 12-week MBTP in addition to the routine rehabilitation in the facility.The second edition of the Social Response Scale was used to measure the changes in the social ability of children with ASD before and after 12-week MBTP.At the same time,the functional brain network was constructed based on the functional connectivity analysis method of rs-fMRI technology,and the graph theory was further used to reveal the changes in the brain network characteristics of children with ASD.Results:(1)Social cognition[F(1,32)=11.34,P=0.002<0.05,η2p=0.268],social communication[F(1,32)=9.077,P=0.005<0.05,η2p=0.226],autistic mannerisms[F(1,32)=4.562,P--0.04<0.05,η2p=0.128],the total score of SRS-2[F(1,32)=8.237,P=0.007<0.05,η2p=0.21]had significant interaction effect between groups and time.(2)Smallworldness(σ)[F(1,32)=54.2,P<0.001,η2p=0.629]of the two groups before and after 12week MBTP intervention had significant interaction effects between group and time.(3)Small-worldness changes before and after 12-week MBTP intervention were significantly correlated with social cognition(r=-0.46,P<0.01),autistic mannerisms(r=-0.36,P<0.05)and the total score of SRS-2(r=-0.34,P<0.05).Conclusions:(1)12-week MBTP can effectively improve the social communication disorder of preschool children with ASD;(2)12-week MBTP can reshape and optimize the characteristics of brain functional network in preschool children with ASD;(3)The neural mechanism of 12-week MBTP improving social communication disorder in preschool children with ASD may involve changes in the characteristics of brain functional networks. |
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