The language network in autism: Atypical functional connectivity with default mode and visual regions.
Yangfeifei Gao, Annika Linke, Ruth Joanne Jao Keehn and 5 others
PMID 31317655WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism showed stronger links at rest within an extended language network and with visual and posterior cingulate regions.
Left-right balance in the language network did not differ from typical peers.
Key findings
01Compared with typical peers, the autism group showed more positive resting-state correlations on seven connections within the language network.
02Whole-brain analyses showed increased connectivity in the autism group between inferior frontal language regions and posterior cingulate cortex, and between precuneus or posterior cingulate regions and occipital visual cortex.
03In 24 of 52 autism participants, posterior cingulate cortex appeared to mediate connectivity between frontal language regions and visual cortex, and in that subgroup connectivity with visual cortex was negatively correlated with language scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample included only relatively high-functioning children and adolescents who could lie almost still in the scanner, so the results may not apply to nonspeaking or more severely affected individuals. The language test also uses working memory and other non-language abilities, which may have made it harder to link brain connectivity to language performance. The within-network overconnectivity effects were mostly medium sized and survived only a relatively lenient correction. The study did not find robust associations between connectivity and behavioral language measures. The mediation analysis was post hoc and included only part of the autism group. The autism group included a wide range of language abilities, which may have weakened group-level effects.
Declared interests
The supplied article metadata lists NIH extramural research support. The provided text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these brain-network differences as evidence that a therapy works or that connectivity can diagnose language impairment. The study did not test treatment, and the connectivity findings were not robustly related to language scores.