Mary Beth Nebel1,
2, Ani Eloyan3, Anita Barber, 12, Brian S. Caffo4,
James J. Pekar, 12, Stewart H. Mostofsky1, 2
1Kennedy
Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States; 4Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with a host of motor behaviors, which may reflect abnormal connectivity within motor control and learning networks. Our objective was to estimate how well functional connectivity (FC) among subregions of the motor cortex (M1) discriminate individuals with ASD from neurotypical (NT) participants using a large, heterogeneous resting state fMRI dataset (368 ASD and 412 NT). Using a multinomial logistic regression model with demographic factors and M1 correlations as predictors and disease status as the outcome, we identified FC signatures of ASD that are consistent with deficits in complex multi-joint coordination associated with ASD.