We have a new paper that appears in Autism Research.
This is another paper to come out of a collaboration between Renee Lajiness O’Neill, Ioulia Kovelman, Susan Bowyer, myself, and others that was funded by U-M’s MCubed program. Renee did the heavy lifting here. This study compares whole-brain source-localized region-to-region coherence estimates with a range of clinical measures to better understand the link between atypical neural synchrony and the clinical profile of ASD. The resting-state data come from school-aged children (8-12 years old) who were scanned with MEG at the Henry Ford Hospital biomagnetism center.
Lajiness-O’Neill, R., Brennan, J., Flores, A., Swick, C., Goodcase, R., Anderson, T., McFarlane, K., Rusiniak, K., Kovelman, I., Wagley, N., Ugolini, M., Richard, A. E. Albright, J., Moran, J. E., & Bowyer, S. M. (In press). Patterns of Altered Neural Synchrony in the Default Mode Network in Autism Spectrum Disorder Revealed with Magnetoencephalography (MEG): Relationship to Clinical Symptomatology. Autism Research. doi: 10.1002/aur.1908
Abstract:
Disrupted neural synchrony may be a primary electrophysiological abnormality in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), altering communication between discrete brain regions and contributing to abnormalities in patterns of connectivity within identified neural networks. Studies exploring brain dynamics to comprehensively characterize and link connectivity to large-scale cortical networks and clinical symptoms are lagging considerably. Patterns of neural coherence within the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Salience Network (SN) during resting state were investigated in 12 children with ASD (MAge = 9.2) and 13 age and gender-matched neurotypicals (NT) (MAge = 9.3) with magnetoencephalography. Coherence between 231 brain region pairs within four frequency bands (theta (4–7 Hz), alpha, (8–12 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz), and gamma (30–80 Hz)) was calculated. Relationships between neural coherence and social functioning were examined. ASD was characterized by lower synchronization across all frequencies, reaching clinical significance in the gamma band. Lower gamma synchrony between fronto-temporo-parietal regions was observed, partially consistent with diminished default mode network (DMN) connectivity. Lower gamma coherence in ASD was evident in cross-hemispheric connections between: angular with inferior/middle frontal; middle temporal with middle/inferior frontal; and within right-hemispheric connections between angular, middle temporal, and inferior/middle frontal cortices. Lower gamma coherence between left angular and left superior frontal, right inferior/middle frontal, and right precuneus and between right angular and inferior/middle frontal cortices was related to lower social/social-communication functioning. Results suggest a pattern of lower gamma band coherence in a subset of regions within the DMN in ASD (angular and middle temporal cortical areas) related to lower social/social-communicative functioning. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.