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Reduced Prefrontal Cortical Responses and Atypical Connectivity to Join Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study
Objectives: In this study, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was applied to study the differences in activation and functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children.
Methods: 20 ASD and 20 TD children were recruited to perform joint and non-joint attention tasks. 8 video clips were made to arouse joint/non-joint attention experience (4 for joint attention and 4 for non-joint attention). 22 fNIRS measurement channels were located at the prefrontal cortex by using 10-20 system.
Results: Compared with TD children, children with ASD showed reduced activation and atypical functional connectivity pattern in the prefrontal cortex during joint attention. The analysis of functional connectivity showed that the prefrontal cortex of TD children exhibited a much more obvious lateralization to the left hemisphere during joint attention than non-joint attention, manifesting as reduced interhemispheric correlation in term of strength as well as correlation maps when the seed was located in the left prefrontal cortex. However, children with ASD did not show any similar pattern.
Conclusions: The atypical development of left prefrontal cortex might play an important role in social cognition defects of children with ASD.