Exploration And Validation Of Neural Circuit For Alterations Of Motor Disorder In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder After Exercise Intervention

Autism spectrum disorder(ASD)encompasses a range of heterogeneous neurodevelopmental conditions which are characterized by difficulties with communication and social interaction,as well as the presence of restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviors.The prevalence of ASD is estimated to be at least 1%,and it is increasing year by year.Longterm intervention and rehabilitation can effectively improve patients’ clinical symptoms and abnormal behaviors,and then alleviate the pain and burden brought by the disease to sick individuals,families and society.Motor Disorder(MD)was first reported in Kanner and Asperger’s study,and the cases they observed showed abnormal gait,gross movement and fine movement.Studies have shown that autistic children have shown defects in motor system long before abnormal social behavior and language ability.Therefore,researchers believe that dyskinesia may not only be a combined symptom,but also be the key point of the pathogenesis and development of autism.Exercise intervention has been proved to be effective in improving the brain and mind of children with ASD,and has been recognized as an evidence-based intervention.Studies have shown that exercise interventions such as swimming,cycling and basketball can effectively improve the MD of children with,but the current research does not focus on the neural mechanism,Abnormal brain connection patterns in autism are highly correlated with clinical symptoms and abnormal behaviors.The neural mechanism of motor disorders is considered to be related to abnormal neural circuits in cortex-cerebellum and cortex-basal ganglia.Therefore,it can be inferred that the neural mechanism of MD’s improvements after exercise intervention in children with ASD may involve the plasticity of a specific neural circuit.So,three problems,What are the brain regions that make up this neural circuit?What are the group characteristics?What is the effect in practical application?,must be solved,which is deeply understand that MD’s improvements after exercise intervention in children with ASD.Based on this,this study firstly adopts qualitative and quantitative systematic review methods to analyze the existing literature research results,so as to determine the constituent brain regions and construct the neural circuit for motor intervention to improve MD in children with ASD;Then,with the help of large sample and multi-center MRI data,a comparative study with Typically development(TD)children was carried out to reveal the group characteristics of motor intervention to improve the neural circuit of motor disorders in children with ASD;Finally,taking the mini-basketball training program(MBTP)as an intervention means,the experimental verification study on improving the neural circuit of motor disorder in children with ASD was carried out.It provides evidence from the perspective of neural circuit to clarify that exercise intervention can improve the MD of children with ASD,provides intervention targets for the development of targeted exercise intervention programs,and provides new ideas and research templates for the related research of exercise intervention of autism.The main research contents are as follows:1.The construction of the neural circuit.In this study,quantitative and qualitative systematic review methods were used to carry out a series of studies,and the key brain regions of motor processing brain activation pattern in children with were found out by sorting out horizontal studies compared with TD;By sorting out the longitudinal studies,found out the brain regions that changed significantly after exercise intervention in children with ASD.The results showed that the cerebellum,basal ganglia,thalamus,sensory cortex,motor cortex and insula may be the specific brain regions of MD’s improvements after exercise intervention in children with ASD.Finally,the neural circuit was constructed based on these brain regions.2.The group characteristics of the neural circuit.With the help of large sample and multicenter brain image data in an open database,this study carried out a horizontal comparative study with TD.Combining functional connectivity(FC)and graph theory,this paper reveals the group characteristics of the neural circuits from two aspects:connection state and network efficiency.(1)The FC results:four pairs of FC were significantly decreased in SMA.L-IPL.L,SPG.R-CRBLCrus2.L,IPL.R-Vermis3,CRBLCrus2.L-CRBL10.L,and three pairs of FC were significantly increased in SMA.R-CRBL9.R,CRBL45.L-Vermis45,CRBL8.L-Vermis45.(2)The graph theory results:the network clustering coefficient of ASD is significantly increased,while the global efficiency is significantly decreased.The node clustering coefficient of CRBL3.R is significantly increased,while the node efficiency of CRBL1.R and CRBL2.R is significantly decreased.This study shows that there are differences in connection state and network efficiency of neural circuit connection between ASD and TD.3.Experimental study on the neural circuit by MBTP.This study adopts the verified effective MBTP as the intervention means,and carries out longitudinal experimental study to Verify the scientificity and effectiveness of the neural circuit in children with ASD.(1)Behavioral results showed that after exercise intervention,the physical coordination score of the experimental group increased significantly;(2)The FC results:after MBTP,six pairs of FC were significantly increased:IPL.R-PAL.L,IPL.L-CRBL3.L,IPL.L-CRBL7b.L,IPL.RCRBL45.L,PCUN.L-PAL.R,CRBL45.R-CRBL8.R.;(3)The graph theory results:after MBTP,the clustering coefficients of PCUN in the experimental group increased significantly,while the efficiency of left basal ganglia and right thalamus nodes decreased significantly;(4)No significant correlation was oberserved between behavioral and brain index after Bonferroni correction.This study shows that MBTP can effectively improve the MD,the connection state and network efficiency of the neural circuit in children with ASD.To sum up,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)The specific brain regions of the neural circuit may involve cerebellum,basal ganglia,thalamus,motor cortex,sensory cortex and insula;(2)The group characteristics of the neural circuits in children with ASD involves abnormal connection state and lower network efficiency of autistic children;(3)The MBTP can improve the connection state and network efficiency of neural circuits in children with ASD.In a word,this paper provides evidence from the perspective of neural circuit for clarifying the neural mechanism of exercise intervention to improve the movement disorder of children with ASD,provides intervention targets for developing targeted exercise intervention programs in the future,and provides new research ideas and templates for exercise intervention to improve the behavior problems of children with ASD.