Hua Cheng1,
Jishui Zhang1, Hao Huang2, Jun Wang3,
Gaolang Gong3, Yun Peng1
1Beijing
Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; 2Advanced
Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas, TX, United States; 3State key laboratory of Cognitive
Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
While fMRI technique has revealed functional abnormalities of multiple brain regions in high-functioning autistic adolescents and adults, how the regional functional patterns are altered in very young autistic children remained unknown. In this study, we utilized sedated-state fMRI to examine 33 treatment-nave young autistic children and 27 controls. The analysis of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fALFF revealed significant changes of functional activity of autistic children in multiple regions, which possibly underlies the core symptoms of autism. Our findings suggest that the sedated-state fMRI can be a potential method to evaluate brain functional development in young children.