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Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the brain in children with autism spectrum disorder

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain mapping has shown that functional brain connections are altered in autism. This study investigated the pattern of brain connection changes in autistic people compared to healthy people. This study aimed to analyze functional abnormalities within the brain due to ASD, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance images of 26 individuals with ASD and 26 healthy controls were obtained from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) database. The DPARSF (data processing assistant for resting-state fMRI) toolbox was used for resting-state functional image processing, and features related to functional connections were extracted from these images. Then, the extracted features from both groups were compared using an Independent Two-Sample T Test, and the features with significant differences between the two groups were identified. Compared with healthy controls, individuals with ASD showed hyper-connectivity in the frontal lobe, anterior cingulum, parahippocampal, left precuneus, angular, caudate, superior temporal, and left pallidum, as well as hypo-connectivity in the precentral, left superior frontal, left middle orbitofrontal, right amygdala, and left posterior cingulum. Our findings show that abnormal functional connectivity exists in patients with ASD. This study makes an important advancement in our understanding of the abnormal neurocircuits causing autism.

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Acknowledgements

This study was conducted using the MSc. thesis of Medical Physics. The authors would like to thank the Research Deputy of MUMS for the financial support of this project (No. 980858). Ethics code: IR.MUMS.MEDICAL.REC.1398.717)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan, Iran

    Zahra Khandan Khadem-Reza, Mohammad Amin Shahram & Hoda Zare

  2. Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Vakil Abad Street, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan, Iran

    Zahra Khandan Khadem-Reza, Mohammad Amin Shahram & Hoda Zare

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  1. Zahra Khandan Khadem-Reza
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Khandan Khadem-Reza, Z., Shahram, M.A. & Zare, H. Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the brain in children with autism spectrum disorder. Radiol Phys Technol 16, 284–291 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12194-023-00717-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12194-023-00717-2

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