Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms are Associated with Connectivity Between Large-Scale Neural Networks and Brain Regions Involved in Social Processing.
Korey P Wylie, Jason R Tregellas, Joshua J Bear and 1 others
PMID 32006272WHAT IT FOUND
Across autistic and typically developing people, higher autism symptom scores were linked to lower connectivity in brain regions involved in social processing.
This is a link, not evidence that the connectivity caused symptoms or could be treated.
Key findings
01In the 107 analysed subjects, connectivity was associated with ADOS total scores in the right aIns, right TPJ, left fusiform gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and middle insula.
02Higher ADOS scores were associated with decreased connectivity in the right aIns, right TPJ, and left fusiform gyrus in exploratory directionality analyses.
03Of the 365 connections displayed, 90% were negatively correlated with ADOS scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The main analysis found relationships between connectivity and scores, but it did not by itself show whether connectivity was higher or lower. The directionality analysis was done after the main analysis and was exploratory, so it cannot establish a causal relationship. The regions tested for directionality were selected from the main analysis first, which can make the later associations look larger. The study used ADOS scores and the Gotham algorithm, not calibrated severity scores or other autism symptom measures, so it may not generalize to other assessments. The sample included both ASD and typically developing subjects, and the analysis did not address expected differences in variability between groups.
Declared interests
The authors declared that they had no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that low connectivity causes autism symptoms or that it can be treated. The paper reports links between resting-state connectivity and ADOS scores, and the directionality analysis was exploratory.