Alterations of functional segregation and integration in children with autism spectrum disorder: A resting-state MRI study.

Motivation: Neuroimaging analysis of brain functional changes can provide a new imaging perspective for understanding the neural mechanism and providing biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of ASD. Goal(s): This study aimed to explore the brain functional changes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Approach: All subjects underwent brain resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans.The data were analyzed using various methods including functional segregation and functional integration. Results: The results showed the significant higher and lower activities in many brain regions, hypo-connectivity between different brain networks and only hyper-connectivity between DAN and DMN. Impact: The functional changes of the brain may be the pathogenesis for children with ASD accompanied, which could become the biomarkers in future clinical diagnosis.