title: Altered brain connectivity in 3-to 7-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often described as a disorder of aberrant neural connectivity and/or aberrant hemispheric lateralization. Although it is important to study the pathophysiology of the developing ASD cortex, the physiological connectivity of the brain in young children with ASD under conscious conditions has not yet been described. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive brain imaging technique that is practical for use in young children. MEG produces a reference-free signal and is, therefore, an ideal tool for computing the coherence between two distant cortical rhythms. Using a custom child-sized MEG, we recently reported that 5- to 7-year-old children with ASD (n = 26) have inherently different neural pathways than typically developing (TD) children that contribute to their relatively preserved performance of visual tasks. In this study, we performed non-invasive measurements of the brain activity of 70 young children (3-7 years old, of which 18 were aged 3-4 years), a sample consisting of 35 ASD children and 35 TD children. Physiological connectivity and the laterality of physiological connectivity were assessed using intrahemispheric coherence for 9 frequency bands. As a result, significant rightward connectivity between the parietotemporal areas, via gamma band oscillations, was found in the ASD group. As we obtained the non-invasive measurements using a custom child-sized MEG, this is the first study to demonstrate a rightward-lateralized neurophysiological network in conscious young children (including children aged 3-4 years) with ASD.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan ; Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan ; Higher Brain Functions & Autism Research, Department of Child Development, United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University, Kanazawa University and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Kiyomi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shitamichi
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: Sanae
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Hirotoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hiraishi
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirosawa
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Munesue
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakatani
authors.forename: Tsunehisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsubokawa
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Haruta
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oi
authors.forename: Yo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Niida
authors.forename: Gerard B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Remijn
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Haruhiro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higashida
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Minabe
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); Connectivity; Laterality index; Magnetoencephalography (MEG); Young children