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• Clinical Article •
Resting-state functional MRI study on abnormal whole-brain functional connectivity of the left hippocampus in children with autism spectrum disorder
ZHANG Mengyao  SHEN Yu  YUE Xipeng  GE Yao  BAI Yan  WANG Meiyun 

Cite this article as: ZHANG M Y, SHEN Y, YUE X P, et al. Resting-state functional MRI study on abnormal whole-brain functional connectivity of the left hippocampus in children with autism spectrum disorder[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(10): 80-85, 92. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.10.014.


[Abstract] Objective To investigate the whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) of the left hippocampus in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Materials and Methods Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were obtained from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) database, including 110 children with ASD and 182 typically developing (TD) controls. Seed-based resting-state FC analysis was performed using the left hippocampus as the seed region to assess whole-brain FC patterns. Two-sample t-tests were used to analyze FC differences between the ASD and TD groups, with a significance threshold of PFDR<0.05. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between abnormal FC values in the ASD group and scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), with P<0.05 considered significant.Results Compared with the TD group, the FC between the left hippocampus and multiple brain regions, including right middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), superior temporal gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus were enhanced in the ASD group. Correlation analysis showed that the FC values of the left hippocampus with the right middle frontal gyrus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), right superior frontal gyrus (medial part), left caudate nucleus, left superior temporal gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus were negatively correlated with ADOS_G_TOTAL scores (r values are -0.313, -0.395, -0.321, -0.303, -0.380, -0.366, -0.355, respectively, P<0.05). The FC values of the left hippocampus with the left inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and right superior parietal gyrus were negatively correlated with the ADOS_G_COMM score (r values are -0.339 and -0.316, both P<0.05).Conclusions Children with ASD exhibit significant abnormalities in whole-brain FC of the left hippocampus, which are significantly correlated with clinical manifestations. These findings not only highlight the critical role of left hippocampal FC in the pathogenesis of ASD but also provide a theoretical basis for future intervention strategies, promoting the development of more targeted treatment options. Moreover, this research offers new perspectives for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying ASD.
[Keywords] autism spectrum disorder；magnetic resonance imaging；resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging；functional connectivity；left hippocampus

ZHANG Mengyao1   SHEN Yu2   YUE Xipeng2   GE Yao2   BAI Yan2   WANG Meiyun2, 3*  

1 Department of Medical Imaging, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Xinxiang Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, China

2 Department of Medical Imaging, Henan Province People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China

3 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450003, China

Corresponding author: WANG M Y, E-mail: mywang@zzu.edu.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2024-06-17
Accepted  2024-10-10
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.10.014
Cite this article as: ZHANG M Y, SHEN Y, YUE X P, et al. Resting-state functional MRI study on abnormal whole-brain functional connectivity of the left hippocampus in children with autism spectrum disorder[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(10): 80-85, 92. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.10.014.

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