Autism and different Frontoamygdala Connectivity

Age-associated differences in frontoamygdala connectivity was investigated in children, adolescents, and in young adults with autism spectrum disorders. In addition, the association among frontoamygdala functional connectivity and social impairment was also investigated (Odriozola, Dajani, Burrows, Gabard-Durnam, Goodman, Baez, et al., 2019). As compared to healthy control subjects, patients with autism spectrum disorders showed diminished frontoamygdala functional connectivity, which was only found in the right hemisphere basolateral amygdala and its functional connectivity with the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. According to the authors, these findings are supportive for the differences found in intrinsic amygdala functional connectivity in patients with autism spectrum disorders across the range (Odriozola et al., 2019). In contrast to hypothesized, there were no differences among the groups concerning the age-associated trajectory of frontoamygdala functional connectivity.

The authors did find nonlinear age-associated alterations in frontoamygdala functional connectivity among the basolateral amygdala and the subgenual cingulate cortex across the full sample studied, Controlling for diagnostic status. basolateral amygdala-subgenual cingulate functional connectivity showed a quadratic pattern concerning age, in which adolescents had diminished functional connectivity as compared to both the children and the adults (Odriozola et al., 2019). Social impairment was found to be not associated with the fMRI results.

It is suggested that these findings might have an impact on the literature concerning that the amygdala is an important area of dysfunction in patients with autism spectrum disorders and highlights the changes in the frontoamygdala circuitry, especially the moderation among the basolateral amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate cortex. According to the authors, impairments in the intrinsic frontoamygdala functional connectivity might be implicated in social impairments in autism spectrum disorders (Odriozola et al., 2019).