Aberrant Resting-state Functional Connectivity Of Core Language Regions In ASD Adolescents

Purpose: To explore characteristic functional connectivity pattern of crucial language regions in righthanded adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD)under resting state functional MRI(rs-f MRI).Methods: We selected 169 right-handed male adolescents with ASD(age 13.6±2.3years)and 195 matched healthy controls(age 13.1±2.4 years)from ABIDE I&II open-sourced databases.Participants underwent standard MRI scan,with all participants kept eyes opened during scans.Rs-f MRI and T1 W structural image data was acquired.We used Neurosynth automated neuroimage ALE meta-analysis system to discover language related ALE distribution brain map,and chose 10 most highly related brain regions to define 10 r=6mm seeds centering on the peak coordination of each selected region.After image data preprocessing,we conducted seed-voxel level functional connectivity(FC)analysis of each seed on every participant respectively with RESTplus.Individual level correlation coefficient r maps were generate,and applied Fisher Z transformation.Then we compared group-level difference with two sample t test,setting age as covariate,and applied Gaussian Random Field(GRF)correction on the result with Voxelwise p<0.005,Clusterwise p<0.01.Finally,functional connectivity strength of each region with significant group-level difference(if any)was extracted for correlation analysis with clinical assessments of ASD group.Results: Lower FIQ and VIQ was observed in ASD group compared with HC.In the seed-voxel level FC analysis,ASD participants demonstrated increased connectivity between right superior temporal gyrus-left posterior cingulate gyrus and bilateral corpus callosum splenium,left inferior frontal gyrus triangular part-bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus,and left inferior occipital gyrus-bilateral superior and middle frontal lobe(P<0.001).Meanwhile,FC strength of left inferior occipital gyrus-left superior frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with FIQ and PIQ,while ADOS＿COMM was negatively correlated with FC strength between left inferior occipital gyrus-bilateral superior frontal gyrus(P<0.05).Conclusion: Our results showed that possible functional disturbance between brain regions involving phonetic and visual language semantic information and social cognition exists in ASD adolescents.Communication difficulty in ASD may be partially attributed to disability in retrieving,comprehending and passing semantic information,thus preventing effective formation of proper social cognition.