Relationship between Short-Range and Homotopic Long-Range Resting State Functional Connectivity in Temporal Lobes in Autism Spectrum Disorder

To investigate the relationship between short-range and homotopic long-range resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children, we analyzed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) RSFC in 25 children with ASD and 22 age-matched TD children. The resting state fNIRS signals, including spontaneous fluctuations in the oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO(2)) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, were recorded from the bilateral temporal lobes. We found that (1) there was no difference in the short-range RSFC between the left and right hemisphere in either ASD or TD group; (2) both the short-range and homotopic long-range RSFC were weaker in the ASD than TD group; and (3) the short-range RSFC was stronger than the homotopic long-range RSFC in the ASD group, whereas no such difference was observed in the TD group. These observations might be helpful for a better understanding of the underlying cortical mechanism in ASD.