Thalamocortical dysconnectivity in autism spectrum disorder: An analysis of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange.
Thalamocortical dysconnectivity in autism spectrum disorder: An analysis of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange.
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DOI：
10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.09.002
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发表时间：
2017-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Cascio CJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Woodward ND;Giraldo-Chica M;Rogers B;Cascio CJ
自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者在基本感觉运动加工和大脑皮层兴奋性方面表现出差异。这些观察结果汇聚在一起，暗示丘脑皮质的连接是一种潜在的统一神经机制。这项研究的目的是澄清在自闭症患者的大样本中关于丘脑皮质功能连接的混合发现。使用自闭症脑成像数据交换(ABET)，我们检测了228名自闭症患者和228名典型发育中个体的匹配对照组的丘脑皮质功能连接性。为了全面描述丘脑皮质的功能网络，我们采用了互补性的基于种子的方法，研究了主要皮质分区(如前额叶、颞叶)与丘脑的连通性以及特定丘脑子区域的全脑连通性。在ASD患者中，前额叶皮质、颞叶和感觉运动皮质与丘脑高度连接。在全脑分析中，几个丘脑种子的高连接性包括多个皮质区域，但倾向于汇聚在颞叶皮质区域，包括颞顶交界处。对年龄效应的跟踪分析表明，与儿童和成人相比，ASD的连接性异常在青少年中更加明显。这些结果证实了先前ASD患者的颞叶和运动性丘脑皮质过度连接的发现，并将其扩展到包括躯体感觉和前额叶皮质。虽然不能用ABISE中提供的数据直接寻址，但从理论上讲，这种广泛的超连接可以解释ASD的感觉运动症状和一般皮质兴奋性。未来的研究应该以全面的临床和行为特征为目标，并结合功能连接来探索这种可能性。
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit differences in basic sensorimotor processing as well as general cortical excitability. These observations converge to implicate thalamocortical connectivity as a potential unifying neural mechanism. The goal of this study was to clarify mixed findings on thalamocortical functional connectivity in a large sample of individuals with ASD. Using the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE), we examined thalamocortical functional connectivity in 228 individuals with ASD and a matched comparison group of 228 typically developing individuals. In order to fully characterize thalamocortical functional networks, we employed complementary seed-based approaches that examined connectivity of major cortical divisions (e.g. prefrontal cortex, temporal lobe) with the thalamus and whole-brain connectivity of specific thalamic sub-regions. Prefrontal cortex, temporal lobe, and sensorimotor cortex exhibited hyper-connectivity with the thalamus in ASD. In the whole-brain analysis, hyper-connectivity of several thalamic seeds included multiple cortical areas, but tended to converge in temporal cortical areas, including the temporoparietal junction. Follow-up analyses of age effects revealed that the connectivity abnormalities in ASD were more pronounced in adolescents compared to children and adults. These results confirm previous findings of temporal and motor thalamocortical hyper-connectivity in ASD, and extend them to include somatosensory and prefrontal cortex. While not directly addressable with the data available in ABIDE, this widespread hyper-connectivity could theoretically account for sensorimotor symptoms and general cortical excitability in ASD. Future studies should target comprehensive clinical and behavioral characterization in combination with functional connectivity in order to explore this possibility.