Altered Cerebellum Spontaneous Activity in juvenile Autism Spectrum Disorders Associated with Cognitive Functions

Abstract BackgroundAutism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a neurodevelopment disorder. The cerebellum has been reported to be one of the key regions involved in ASD. However, the associations between the cerebellum and clinical traits remain unclear. MethodsHere we performed Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (ALFF) analysis to detect the alterations of brain spontaneous activity in ASDs and explore the associations between spontaneous brain activity and clinical traits. ResultsCompared with normal controls, cerebellum crus 2 showed significantly weaker average ALFF values. Other regions such as left cerebellum 6, cerebellum vermis 4 5, putamen, SMA and thalamus showed increased mean ALFF values. In ASD patients with SRS total score T above 59, the mean ALFF values of cerebellum vermis 4 5 was significantly correlated with SRS total score T (r=0.175, P=0.031), SRS cognition score T (r=0.169, P=0.036) and SRS motivation score T (r=0.176, P=0.028).ConclusionsThese findings were not observed in other brain regions and in normal controls. Our study suggests a role of cerebellum in cognitive impairments in ASD and supports a mechanistic basis for the targeted treatment of ASD disorders.Trial registrationNot applicable.