Autism Subtypes Show Distinct Brain Connectivity Patterns Along the Sensorimotor–Association Axis

Children and adults with autism exhibit altered large-scale brain connectivity patterns compared with typically developing individuals, and these differences are most pronounced in a subtype characterized by lower language, intellectual, and adaptive functioning (LIAF). Using data-driven clustering of standardized phenotypic measures from 419 individuals in the US National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive, researchers identified two distinct autism subtypes—high and low LIAF—that generalized to independent datasets with 92% accuracy. The subtype model was then applied to resting-state fMRI data from 174 individuals with autism and 185 typically developing controls. Overall, autism was associated with increased functional connectivity in higher-order association regions and reduced connectivity in sensorimotor regions. These connectivity differences were especially evident in the low-LIAF autism subgroup and followed the brain’s sensorimotor–association (S-A) axis, a key organizational gradient of neurodevelopment. The findings suggest that atypical cortical patterning along the S-A axis persists beyond early childhood and may be particularly pronounced in individuals with autism who have greater challenges in language, intellectual, and adaptive functioning. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/