Assessment of social and cognitive dysfunction of autism spectrum disorder through functional network connectivity

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Obsessive tendencies, language deficits, and social deficits are the hallmarks of ASD. Poor information integration across functional networks of the brain may be the root cause of these deficiencies. Functional network connectivity (FNC) assessment among six brain networks, viz. anterior default mode network, posterior default mode network, two fronto-parietal networks, basal ganglia network (BGN) and salience network (SN) have been examined here in this paper. To understand the development trajectory of ASD, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset of autistic children, adolescents and adults are considered. The SN and BGN of participants with ASD had the most FNC differences with typically developing cohorts. The SN had hyperconnectivity with the rest five networks for autistic children while hypoconnectivity were observed for adolescents and adults. The two lateralized fronto-parietal network had no connectivity for the two initial developmental stages however for adults with ASD they had stronger functional connectivity.