Abstract

Structural neuroimaging studies suggest altered brain maturation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with typically developing controls (TDC). However, the prognostic value of whole-brain structural connectivity analysis in ASD has not been established. Diffusion magnetic imaging data were acquired in 27 high-functioning young ASD participants (2 females) and 29 age-matched TDC (12 females; age 8-18 years) at baseline and again following 3-7 years. Whole-brain structural connectomes were reconstructed from these data and analyzed using a longitudinal statistical model. We identified distinct patterns of widespread brain connections that exhibited either significant increases or decreases in connectivity over time (p?<?0.001). There was a significant interaction between diagnosis and time in brain development (p?<?0.001). This was expressed by a decrease in structural connectivity within the frontoparietal network-and its broader connectivity-in ASD during adolescence and early adulthood. Conversely, these connections increased with time in TDC. Crucially, stronger baseline connectivity in this subnetwork predicted a lower symptom load at follow-up (p?=?0.048), independent of the expression of symptoms at baseline. Our findings suggest a clinically meaningful relationship between the atypical development of frontoparietal structural connections and the dynamics of the autism phenotype through early adulthood. These results highlight a potential marker of future outcome.

Authors	Lin, Hsiang-Yuan; Perry, Alistair; Cocchi, Luca; Roberts, James A; Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac; Breakspear, Michael; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen
Journal	TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY
Pages	86
Volume	9
Date	1/02/2019
Grant ID	NSC 101-2314-B-002-136-MY3
Funding Body	Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan)
URL	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1038/s41398-019-0418-5
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