Difference in default mode network subsystems in autism across childhood and adolescence.
Joe Bathelt, Hilde M Geurts
PMID 33246376WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic boys showed stronger brain network connections in childhood that decreased more sharply during adolescence than in non-autistic boys.
By age 18, these brain connectivity patterns looked similar to the comparison group. The study found no link between these brain changes and symptom scores.
Key findings
01The decrease in connection strength between brain subsystems was significantly greater in the autism group compared to the control group as age increased.
02Autistic children showed lower network modularity (less distinct brain subsystems) than controls, but this difference disappeared in adolescents.
03There was no significant association between the observed brain connectivity measures and autism symptom severity scores (SRS or ADOS).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, meaning it compared different individuals at different ages rather than tracking the same children over time. This limits conclusions about individual developmental trajectories. Only male participants were included, so the findings cannot be generalised to autistic girls or women. Data came from multiple sites with varying scanning protocols, which introduces technical variability that was only partially controlled. Symptom severity data (SRS/ADOS) was only available for about half of the autism group, reducing the power to detect links between brain structure and behaviour. The analysis excluded participants with very low or very high IQ, so findings may not apply to those with significant intellectual disability.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by the Amsterdam Brain & Cognition Talent Grant and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these brain network differences as a cause of autism symptoms or a diagnostic marker. The study found no correlation between the connectivity patterns and symptom severity scores, and the differences observed were specific to male participants under 18.