A Data Driven Approach Reveals That Anomalous Motor System Connectivity is Associated With the Severity of Core Autism Symptoms
Year: 2021
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined whether disruptions in connectivity involving regions critical for learning, planning, and executing movements are relevant to core autism symptoms. Spatially constrained ICA was performed using resting-state fMRI from 419 children (autism spectrum disorder (ASD) = 105; typically developing (TD) = 314) to identify functional motor subdivisions. Comparing the spatial organization of each subdivision between groups, we found voxels that contributed significantly less to the right posterior cerebellar component in children with ASD versus TD (P <0.001). Next, we examined the effect of diagnosis on right posterior cerebellar connectivity with all other motor subdivisions. The model was significant (P = 0.014) revealing that right posterior cerebellar connectivity with bilateral dorsomedial primary motor cortex was, on average, stronger in children with ASD, while right posterior cerebellar connectivity with left-inferior parietal lobule (IPL), bilateral dorsolateral premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area was stronger in TD children (all P ≤0.02). We observed a diagnosis-by-connectivity interaction such that for children with ASD, elevated social-communicative and excessive repetitive-behavior symptom severity were both associated with right posterior cerebellar-left-IPL hypoconnectivity (P ≤0.001). Right posterior cerebellar and left-IPL are strongly implicated in visuomotor processing with dysfunction in this circuit possibly leading to anomalous development of skills, such as motor imitation, that are crucial for effective social-communication. LAY SUMMARY: This study examines whether communication between various brain regions involved in the control of movement are disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We show communication between the right posterior cerebellum and left IPL, a circuit important for efficient visual-motor integration, is disrupted in children with ASD and associated with the severity of ASD symptoms. These results may explain observations of visual-motor integration impairments in children with ASD that are associated with ASD symptom severity.
Source: Autism Research
DOI: 10.1002/aur.2476
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Autism Speaks, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Research Resources, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers 2020, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UL1), A Novel Framework for Impaired Imitation in ASD, Somatosensory Inhibitory Dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorder., Resource for Quantitative Functional FMRI, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers 2013, G6703674131, Visual-Motor Development in Infants at High Risk for Autism, Motor Skill Learning in Autism, Delay Discounting in Children with ADHD: Neuroimaging and Behavioral Correlates, G886717368, Neurobehavioral Correlates of Frustration in Children with ADHD
OpenAlex ID: W3123841121