Cortical Functional Connectivity during Praxis in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by abnormal functional connectivity.
• Motor deficits are common in individuals with ASD.
• Previous functional connectivity studies in ASD have yielded inconsistent results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate neural mechanisms underlying motor task execution in ASD using praxis.
• To explore alterations in brain organization in ASD using graph metrics for functional connectivity.
• To compare cortical connectivity patterns between high-functioning ASD (HFA) children and typically developing (TD) children during a motor task.

Main Methods:

• Utilized electroencephalography (EEG) with eLORETA (standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography) to assess cortical connectivity.
• Employed graph theory metrics to analyze functional brain network properties.
• Compared a cohort of 45 HFA children with 45 TD children during a praxis task.

Main Results:

• HFA children showed higher clustering coefficients and lower global efficiency compared to TD children.
• TD children exhibited decreased global efficiency and increased characteristic path length during praxis execution.
• Significant group differences in nodal metrics were observed in frontal and occipital regions.
• TD children demonstrated significant changes in nodal metrics and connection strengths between baseline and praxis, unlike HFA children.

Conclusions:

• Cortical connectivity in ASD is characterized by lower overall efficiency.
• Individuals with ASD display a deficit in brain network reorganization during motor tasks.
• These findings deepen the understanding of abnormal brain organization in ASD.