Mapping neural correlates of biological motion perception in autistic children using high-density diffuse optical tomography.

The recruited sample was 112, but the main comparison analysed only 23 autistic and 21 non-autistic participants after IQ exclusions, missing scores, data-quality thresholds, and matching. Data loss was partly attributed to COVID-19 restrictions stopping data collection, not to task performance. Proband siblings were not included in group analyses because only 12 passed quality thresholds, which the authors said was too small for meaningful statistical power. The study used a standard head model instead of participant-specific MRI anatomy, so image location has some reconstruction error. Eye gaze was monitored but not quantitatively measured, so differences in attention to the screen cannot be ruled out. The task was passive viewing of point-light biological motion, not a real social interaction or a task requiring a response. There were too few female participants to assess sex-related differences. HD-DOT cannot measure subcortical structures such as the amygdala and cerebellum. The brain-behaviour relationships are correlational and exploratory; the paper states they are for generating hypotheses. The Discussion notes that ASD heterogeneity may explain why some prior fMRI findings, such as left hemisphere activation or superior temporal sulcus differences, were not observed.

The supplied text names the National Institutes of Health as funder. It does not report a separate conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not conclude that HD-DOT can diagnose autism or that biological motion brain differences should guide therapy. The main comparison used 23 autistic and 21 non-autistic participants, the task was passive, and the brain-trait links were correlational and partly exploratory.