Acquisition time for functional near-infrared spectroscopy resting-state functional connectivity in assessing autism

SIGNIFICANCE: Resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) can be used to assess autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Measuring RSFC usually takes 5 to 10 min, during which children with ASD may have difficulty keeping their heads motionless. Therefore, a short acquisition time for RSFC would make clinical implementation more feasible. AIM: To find a suitable acquisition time necessary for measuring RSFC with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for the differentiation between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children. APPROACH: We used fNIRS to record the spontaneous hemodynamic fluctuations from the bilateral temporal lobes of 25 children with ASD and 22 TD children. The recorded signals were truncated into several segments with different time windows, and then the homotopic RSFC was computed for each of these segments and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: We observed even in a very short time duration of 0.5 min, the RSFC had already existed a significant difference between the two groups, and 2.0 min might be the minimal time required for measuring RSFC for accurate differentiation between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The fNIRS-RSFC acquired even in a short time, e.g., 2.0 min, might be a reliable feature for the differentiation between children with ASD and TD children.