Local Functional Overconnectivity in Posterior Brain Regions Is Associated with Symptom Severity in Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Local brain connectivity is atypically increased in autism in the posterior brain
• Some regions in frontal and parietal lobes show local underconnectivity
• Connection density correlates with symptom severity in autism

SummaryAlthough growing evidence indicates atypical long-distance connectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), much less is known about local connectivity, despite conjectures that local overconnectivity may be causally involved in the disorder. Using functional connectivity MRI and graph theory, we found that local functional connectivity was atypically increased in adolescents with ASD in temporo-occipital regions bilaterally. Posterior overconnectivity was found to be associated with higher ASD symptom severity, whereas an ASD subsample with low severity showed frontal underconnectivity. The findings suggest links between symptomatology and local connectivity, which vary within the autism spectrum.

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