Organization of brain networks governed by long-range connections index autistic traits in the general population

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Mariano Sigman⁵  Agustín Ibanez³  Facundo Manes⁴  Ailin Tomio⁴  Luz Bavassi⁶  Sebastián Cukier¹  Joaquín Ais⁶  Lucía Amoruso⁴  Pablo Barttfeld² 

[1] Programa Argentino para Niños, Adolescentes y Adultos con Condiciones del Espectro Autista (PANAACEA), Buenos Aires, Argentina;Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France;UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience (UIFCoN), Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile;Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO), Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina;Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Almirante Juan Saenz Valiente 1010, Buenos Aires C1428BIJ, Argentina;Physics Department, Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, FCEyN UBA and IFIBA, Conicet, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina

关键词: Long-range connections;    Small world;    Synchronization likelihood;    Autistic traits;    Electroencephalography;    Autism spectrum disorders;   

Others  :  806300
DOI  :  10.1186/1866-1955-5-16

 received in 2013-04-02, accepted in 2013-06-14,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

The dimensional approach to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) considers ASD as the extreme of a dimension traversing through the entire population. We explored the potential utility of electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity as a biomarker. We hypothesized that individual differences in autistic traits of typical subjects would involve a long-range connectivity diminution within the delta band.

Methods

Resting-state EEG functional connectivity was measured for 74 neurotypical subjects. All participants also provided a questionnaire (Social Responsiveness Scale, SRS) that was completed by an informant who knows the participant in social settings. We conducted multivariate regression between the SRS score and functional connectivity in all EEG frequency bands. We explored modulations of network graph metrics characterizing the optimality of a network using the SRS score.

Results

Our results show a decay in functional connectivity mainly within the delta and theta bands (the lower part of the EEG spectrum) associated with an increasing number of autistic traits. When inspecting the impact of autistic traits on the global organization of the functional network, we found that the optimal properties of the network are inversely related to the number of autistic traits, suggesting that the autistic dimension, throughout the entire population, modulates the efficiency of functional brain networks.

Conclusions

EEG functional connectivity at low frequencies and its associated network properties may be associated with some autistic traits in the general population.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Barttfeld et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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