Tracking the autistic brain during movie watching: Inter-individual response variability co-varies with symptomatology

Publication date: Available online 25 January 2020Source: NeuroImageAuthor(s): Thomas A.W. Bolton, Lorena Freitas, Delphine Jochaut, Anne-Lise Giraud, Dimitri Van De VilleAbstractNaturalistic movie paradigms are exquisitely dynamic by nature, yet dedicated analytical methods typically remain static. Here, we deployed a dynamic inter-subject functional correlation (ISFC) analysis to study movie-driven functional brain changes in a population of male young adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We took inspiration from the resting-state research field in generating a set of whole-brain ISFC states expressed by the analysed ASD and typically developing (TD) subjects along time.Change points of state expression often involved transitions between different scenes of the movie, resulting in the reorganisation of whole-brain ISFC patterns to recruit different functional networks. Both subject populations showed idiosyncratic state expression at dedicated time points, but only TD subjects were also characterised by episodes of homogeneous recruitment. The temporal fluctuations in both quantities, as well as in cross-population dissimilarity, were tied to contextual movie cues.The prominent idiosyncrasy seen in ASD subjects was linked to individual symptomatology by partial least squares analysis, as different temporal sequences of ISFC states were expressed by subjects suffering from social and verbal communication impairments, as opposed to nonverbal communication def...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research