Atypical functional connectivity of temporal cortex with precuneus and visual regions may be an early-age signature of ASD.
Yaqiong Xiao, Teresa H Wen, Lauren Kupis and 7 others
PMID 36899425WHAT IT FOUND
No overall brain connectivity difference between groups was found.
In toddlers without ASD, language brain-region connectivity was linked to language and social scores. In toddlers with ASD, those links were absent, and unusual visual and precuneus links were found instead.
Key findings
01In non-ASD toddlers, right superior temporal connectivity with frontal, parietal, and cerebellar regions was correlated with expressive language, communication, and socialization scores.
02In ASD toddlers, the typical non-ASD connectivity-behavior correlations were absent, and communication and expressive language were instead correlated with temporal-visual and temporal-precuneus connectivity.
03The atypical temporal-visual and temporal-precuneus correlations were present in both social and nonsocial visual responder ASD subgroups, and subgroup correlation strength did not differ.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a 2-year-old brain template, and two children were 4 years old at MRI scanning. The ASD subgroup analyses used 16 nonsocial and 16 social visual responders, so the subgroup findings are preliminary. ASD children had lower cognitive and language scores than non-ASD children, and the authors note this developmental difference may explain the connectivity-behavior patterns. No main effect of group or behavioral measure was observed after correction, so the main group comparison was not positive. The study reports correlations and does not test treatment, so it cannot show that changing connectivity would change language or social skills.
Declared interests
Funders named were National Natural Science Foundation of China, H2020 European Research Council, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and National Institute of Mental Health. No author competing interests are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these connectivity patterns to diagnose a toddler or choose therapy. The study reports correlations in 86 toddlers and does not show that a treatment changed language or social skills.