title: Weak network efficiency in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.
abstract: Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is particularly suited for the young population and ecological measurement. However, thus far, not enough effort has been given to the clinical diagnosis of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by using fNIRS. The current study provided some insights into the quantitative analysis of functional networks in young children (ages 4.8-8.0years old) with and without ASD and, in particular, investigated the network efficiency and lobe-level connectivity of their functional networks while watching a cartoon. The main results included that: (i) Weak network efficiency was observed in young children with ASD, even for a wide range of threshold for the binarization of functional networks; (ii) A maximum classification accuracy rate of 83.3% was obtained for all participants by using the k-means clustering method with network efficiencies as the feature parameters; and (iii) Weak lobe-level inter-region connections were uncovered in the right prefrontal cortex, including its linkages with the left prefrontal cortex and the bilateral temporal cortex. Such results indicate that the right prefrontal cortex might make a major contribution to the psychopathology of young children with ASD at the functional network architecture level, and at the functional lobe-connectivity level, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Yanwei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: dcyu@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dongchuan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D063132:Connectome / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Clinical diagnosis; Lobe-level connectivity; Network efficiency; Right prefrontal cortex; fNIRS