Functional connectivity within an anxiety network and associations with anxiety symptom severity in middle-aged adults with and without autism.
Ryan Tung, Maya A Reiter, Annika Linke and 4 others
PMID 34264028WHAT IT FOUND
Middle-aged adults with autism showed higher anxiety and reduced brain connectivity in anxiety networks.
However, within the autism group, stronger connectivity in these networks correlated with more severe anxiety, a pattern opposite to that seen in typical adults. This suggests distinct neural mechanisms for anxiety in autism.
Key findings
01The autism group had significantly higher anxiety scores than the control group.
02Functional connectivity within the anxiety network was significantly reduced in the autism group compared to controls.
03In the autism group, higher anxiety severity was positively correlated with stronger functional connectivity, contrary to the negative correlation typically seen in non-autism populations.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (48 participants), limiting statistical power. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether the brain connectivity differences cause anxiety or result from it. Participants were not excluded for taking psychotropic medications, which may have influenced brain activity. The majority of participants had average or above-average IQ, so findings may not generalize to autistic adults with intellectual disabilities. The typical control group had very low anxiety scores, making it difficult to compare anxiety-related brain patterns between groups accurately.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by NIH and non-US government grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the reduced overall connectivity in the autism group as evidence that their anxiety networks are simply 'weaker' or 'broken' in a way that mirrors non-autistic anxiety. The critical finding is the reversed relationship: within the autism group, stronger connectivity in these networks was associated with higher anxiety, which is the opposite of the pattern often seen in typical adults. This suggests a distinct mechanism that standard anxiety models may not capture.