Abnormal functional connectivity of default mode sub-networks in autism spectrum disorder patients
By Michal Assaf, Kanchana Jagannathan, Vince D. Calhoun, L. Miller, Michael C. Stevens, R. Sahl, Jacqueline G. O'Boyle, Robert T. Schultz, Godfrey D. Pearlson. NeuroImage, 2010
707 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by deficits in social and communication processes. Recent data suggest that altered functional connectivity (FC), i.e. synchronous brain activity, might contribute to these deficits. Of specific interest is the FC integrity of the default mode network (DMN), a network active during passive resting states and cognitive processes related to social deficits seen in ASD, e.g. Theory of Mind. We investigated the role of altered FC of default mode sub-networks (DM-SNs) in 16 patients with high-functioning ASD compared to 16 matched healthy controls of short resting fMRI scans using independent component analysis (ICA). ICA is a multivariate data-driven approach that identifies temporally coherent networks, providing a natural measure of FC. Results show that compared to controls, patients showed decreased FC between the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate cortex, DMN core areas, and other DM-SNs areas. FC magnitude in these regions inversely correlated with the severity of patients' social and communication deficits as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule and the Social Responsiveness Scale. Importantly, supplemental analyses suggest that these results were independent of treatment status. These results support the hypothesis that DM-SNs under-connectivity contributes to the core deficits seen in ASD. Moreover, these data provide further support for the use of data-driven analysis with resting-state data for illuminating neural systems that differ between groups. This approach seems especially well suited for populations where compliance with and performance of active tasks might be a challenge, as it requires minimal cooperation.
Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/587e2c96429e2cc4a6d3764d8aaecb9ed9c62def
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In Cognitive Neuroscience
Citations in the corpus
- Group information guided ICA for fMRI data analysis (2013, neutral): “The existence of three overlapping but differentiable sub-networks may be rendered by variations in the functional specialization of the DMN as reported in other ICA studies (Assaf et al., 2010).”
- Decreased Functional Connectivity by Aging Is Associated with Cognitive Decline (2012, methodology): “, 2012; Jin, Pelak, & Cordes, 2012) and clinical symptoms (Assaf et al., 2010; Rocca et al., 2010; Greicius et al., 2007).”
- Theory of Mind and Neurodevelopmental Disorders of Childhood (2011, background): “Magnetoencephalography studies highlight the importance of the study of the functional connectivity between areas of ToM and areas of the default mode network, which are active during passive resting states of the brain in relation to ToM mechanisms (117).”