Yongxia Zhou1,
Xi-Nian Zuo2, Daniel K. Sodickson1, Yulin Ge1,
Michael P. Milham3, Robert I. Grossman4, Yvonne W. Lui1
1Radiology/Center
for Biomedical Imaging, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York,
NY, United States; 2Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing, China; 3Child Mind Institute, New York University Langone
Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; 4Radiology/Center for
Biomedical Imaging, New York University, New York, NY, United States
We aim to study the structural and functional connectivity changes of two primary sub-segments of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) which contain the motor neurons and the subcortical caudate regions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data were downloaded from a multi-center Functional Connectome Project including structural and functional MRI data; with a total of 79 children with ASD and 105 age-matched typically developing children. Results showed brain atrophy in IFG, and abnormal caudate and IFG functional connectivity and reduced neuronal activity (via fractional amplitude) in children with ASD. There were significant correlations between fMRI metrics and multiple phenotypic data.