Sex-dependent structure of socioemotional salience, executive control, and default mode networks in preschool-aged children with autism
Brandon A. Zielinski,
Derek S. Andrews,
Joshua K. Lee,
Marjorie Solomon,
Sally J. Rogers,
Brianna Heath,
Christine Wu Nordahl,
David G. Amaral
Affiliations
Brandon A. Zielinski
Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Corresponding author.
Derek S. Andrews
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
Joshua K. Lee
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
Marjorie Solomon
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
Sally J. Rogers
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
Brianna Heath
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
Christine Wu Nordahl
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
David G. Amaral
The Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA
The structure of large-scale intrinsic connectivity networks is atypical in adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD or autism). However, the degree to which alterations occur in younger children, and whether these differences vary by sex, is unknown. We utilized structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from a sex- and age- matched sample of 122 autistic and 122 typically developing (TD) children (2–4 years old) to investigate differences in underlying network structure in preschool-aged autistic children within three large scale intrinsic connectivity networks implicated in ASD: the Socioemotional Salience, Executive Control, and Default Mode Networks. Utilizing structural covariance MRI (scMRI), we report network-level differences in autistic versus TD children, and further report preliminary findings of sex-dependent differences within network topology.
