title: Atypical developmental trajectory of local spontaneous brain activity in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by atypical trajectory of brain maturation, yet the developmental abnormalities in brain function remain unclear. The current study examined the effect of age on amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in ASD and typical controls (TC) using a cross-sectional design. We classified all the participants into three age cohorts: child (<11 years, 18ASD/20TC), adolescent (11-18 years, 28ASD/26TC) and adult (≥18 years, 18ASD/18TC). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to ascertain main effects and interaction effects on whole brain ALFF maps. Results exhibited significant main effect of diagnosis in ASD with decreased ALFF in the right precuneus and left middle occipital gyrus during all developmental stages. Significant diagnosis-by-age interaction was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) with ALFF lowered in autistic children but highered in autistic adolescents and adults. Specifically, remarkable quadratic change of ALFF with increasing age in mPFC presented in TC group was absent in ASD. Additionally, abnormal ALFF values in diagnosis-related brain regions predicted the social deficits in ASD. Our findings indicated aberrant developmental patterns of spontaneous brain activity associated with social deficits in ASD and highlight the crucial role of the default mode network in the development of disease.
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaonan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhiliang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Xujun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Youxue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Information in BioMedicine, Key laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
authors.forename: Huafu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D058256:Brain Waves; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000503:physiopathology