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Research progress on multimodal structural-functional MRI studies of hierarchical large-scale brain network abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder
XU Yuanyuan  ZHANG Guomin  WU Guangrong  FANG Jie  XIONG Siyan  YANG Wei 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.01.020.


[Abstract] Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that emerges in early childhood, characterized by social communication difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Despite their diverse symptoms, individuals with ASD may have shared neurobiological characteristics. Advances in MRI now allow researchers to study brain network abnormalities in ASD from multiple, noninvasive perspectives. This review highlights recent studies using diffusion and functional MRI, covering tract-based spatial statistics, graph theory analyses, functional gradient mapping, and sliding-window approaches. We focus on how these methods help reveal white matter integrity, functional coordination, and hierarchical brain organization in ASD. We also discuss the potential of multimodal image fusion and artificial intelligence (AI) for ASD subtype identification and auxiliary diagnosis. Overall, findings from multimodal MRI indicate cross-scale alterations of brain networks in ASD, providing new imaging evidence for understanding its neural mechanisms and for supporting early identification and individualized intervention. On this basis, we briefly outline the main limitations of current research and, from an integrated perspective spanning "microstructure-large-scale function-structure-function coupling-multimodal analysis", propose future research directions to inform radiologists and neuroscience researchers.
[Keywords] autism spectrum disorder；multimodal magnetic resonance imaging；magnetic resonance imaging；large-scale brain networks；structure-function coupling；machine learning

XU Yuanyuan   ZHANG Guomin   WU Guangrong   FANG Jie   XIONG Siyan   YANG Wei*  

Department of Radiology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (the First People's Hospital of Zunyi), Zunyi 563000, China

Corresponding author: YANG W, E-mail: yangwei@zmu.edu.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-09-30
Accepted  2025-12-12
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.01.020
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.01.020.

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