Dataset Information

Functional connectivity of the inferior frontal cortex changes with age in children with autism spectrum disorders: a fcMRI study of response inhibition.

ABSTRACT: Unmasking the neural basis of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), requires studying functional connectivity during childhood when cognitive skills develop. A functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) analysis was performed on data collected during Go/NoGo task performance from 24 children ages 8-12 years (12 with ASD; 12 controls matched on age and intellectual functioning). We investigated the connectivity of the left and right inferior frontal cortex (IFC; BA 47), key regions for response inhibition, with other active regions in frontal, striatal, and parietal cortex. Groups did not differ on behavioral measures or functional connectivity of either IFC region. A trend for reduced connectivity in the right IFC for the ASD group was revealed when controlling for age. In the ASD group, there was a significant negative correlation between age and 2 right IFC correlation pairs: right IFC-bilateral presupplementary motor area (BA 6) and right IFC-right caudate. Compared with typical controls, children with ASD may not have gross differences in IFC functional connectivity during response inhibition, which contrasts with an adult study of ASD that reported reduced functional connectivity. This discrepancy suggests an atypical developmental trajectory in ASD for right IFC connectivity with other neural regions supporting response inhibition.

SUBMITTER: Lee PS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2722789 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Functional connectivity of the inferior frontal cortex changes with age in children with autism spectrum disorders: a fcMRI study of response inhibition.

Lee Philip S PS Yerys Benjamin E BE Della Rosa Anne A Foss-Feig Jennifer J Barnes Kelly Anne KA James Joette D JD VanMeter John J Vaidya Chandan J CJ Gaillard William D WD Kenworthy Lauren E LE

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20081209 8

Unmasking the neural basis of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), requires studying functional connectivity during childhood when cognitive skills develop. A functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) analysis was performed on data collected during Go/NoGo task performance from 24 children ages 8-12 years (12 with ASD; 12 controls matched on age and intellectual functioning). We investigated the connectivity of the left and right inferior fronta ...[more]

PMID: 19068486

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Project description:BackgroundThe human inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is a large heterogeneous structure with distinct cytoarchitectonic subdivisions and fiber connections. It has been found involved in a wide range of executive control processes from target detection, rule retrieval to response control. Since these processes are often being studied separately, the functional organization of executive control processes within the IFC remains unclear.Methodology/principal findingsWe conducted an fMRI study to examine the activities of the subdivisions of IFC during the presentation of a task cue (rule retrieval) and during the performance of a stop-signal task (requiring response generation and inhibition) in comparison to a not-stop task (requiring response generation but not inhibition). We utilized a mixed event-related and block design to separate brain activity in correspondence to transient control processes from rule-related and sustained control processes. We found differentiation in control processes within the IFC. Our findings reveal that the bilateral ventral-posterior IFC/anterior insula are more active on both successful and unsuccessful stop trials relative to not-stop trials, suggesting their potential role in the early stage of stopping such as triggering the stop process. Direct countermanding seems to be outside of the IFC. In contrast, the dorsal-posterior IFC/inferior frontal junction (IFJ) showed transient activity in correspondence to the infrequent presentation of the stop signal in both tasks and the left anterior IFC showed differential activity in response to the task cues. The IFC subdivisions also exhibited similar but distinct patterns of functional connectivity during response control.Conclusions/significanceOur findings suggest that executive control processes are distributed across the IFC and that the different subdivisions of IFC may support different control operations through parallel cortico-cortical and cortico-striatal circuits.

Dataset Information

Functional connectivity of the inferior frontal cortex changes with age in children with autism spectrum disorders: a fcMRI study of response inhibition.

Publications

Functional connectivity of the inferior frontal cortex changes with age in children with autism spectrum disorders: a fcMRI study of response inhibition.

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