title: Developmental meta-analysis of the functional neural correlates of autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a pressing need to elucidate the brain-behavior interactions underlying autism spectrum disorders (ASD) given the marked rise in ASD diagnosis over the past decade. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has begun to address this need, but few fMRI studies have evaluated age-related changes in ASD. Therefore, we conducted a developmental analysis of activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to compare child versus adult ASD fMRI studies. We hypothesized that children and adolescents with ASD (<18 years old) would rely less on prefrontal cortex structures than adults (≥18 years old).
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and PsycInfo literature searches were conducted to identify task-dependent fMRI studies of children or adults with ASD. Then recent GingerALE software improvements were leveraged to perform direct comparisons of child (n = 18) versus adult (n = 24) studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ALE meta-analyses of social tasks showed that children and adolescents with ASD versus adults had significantly greater hyperactivation in the left post-central gyrus, and greater hypoactivation in the right hippocampus and right superior temporal gyrus. ALE meta-analyses of nonsocial tasks showed that children with ASD versus adults had significantly greater hyperactivation in the right insula and left cingulate gyrus, and hypoactivation in the right middle frontal gyrus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that the neural alterations associated with ASD are not static, occurring only in early childhood. Instead, children with ASD have altered neural activity compared to adults during both social and nonsocial tasks, especially in fronto-temporal structures. Longitudinal neuroimaging studies are required to examine these changes prospectively, as potential targets for brain-based treatments for ASD.
authors: Bradley Hospital's PediMIND Program, East Providence, RI 02915, USA. Daniel_Dickstein@Brown.edu
authors: Daniel P
authors: DP
authors: Dickstein
authors: Matthew F
authors: MF
authors: Pescosolido
authors: Brooke L
authors: BL
authors: Reidy
authors: Thania
authors: T
authors: Galvan
authors: Kerri L
authors: KL
authors: Kim
authors: Karen E
authors: KE
authors: Seymour
authors: Angela R
authors: AR
authors: Laird
authors: Adriana
authors: A
authors: Di Martino
authors: Rowland P
authors: RP
authors: Barrett
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data