Karthik Ramakrishnan Sreenivasan1, Gopikrishna Deshpande1, 2, Hrishikesh Deshpande3, Rajesh K. Kana4
1AU MRI Research Center,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States; 2Department of Psychology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States; 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, United States; 4Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, United States
The current study focuses on effective brain connectivity in an fMRI study of Theory-of-Mind (ToM) in high-functioning adults with autism. fMRI time series were first deconvolved with cubature Kalman filter and then the underlying neuronal states subsequently input to a multivariate autoregressive model for finding effective connectivity paths. The results showed that connectivity between ToM regions was greater in control as compared to Autism and those paths mediated the relationship between subject category (control/autism) and behavioral metrics such as Autism Quotient and Mind in the Eyes score.