Alterations of functional and structural coupling in patients with autism spectrum disorders

Motivation: The abnormal brain areas in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients detected by resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) and 3D-T1 MRI alone are not completely consistent. Goal(s): To explore the structural and functional coupling change in ASD patients. Approach: Correlation analyses were conducted between structural and functional measures of the abnormal brain area in ASD and compared with healthy controls. Results: ASD patients not only had abnormal function in the thalamus and superior frontal gyrus, but also showed the reverse trend of correlation between the gray matter volume and functional indicators compared with healthy controls. Impact: The abnormal function and reverse trend of correlation between the gray matter volume and functional indicators in the thalamus and superior frontal gyrus compared with healthy controls might provide new perspective for deeply understanding neural mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder.