Alteration of individual morphological brain networks in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.

Authors

Weixuan Qin, Chunlan Sun, Shuang Ding, Ruofei Ma, Bin Qin, Kaiping Huang, Yun Zhang, Longlun Wang, Jinhua Cai

Published in

Brain imaging and behavior. Volume 20. Issue 4. Jul 07, 2026. Epub Jul 07, 2026.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the altered topological properties of individual morphological brain networks in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to explore their correlation with clinical symptoms. We prospectively recruited 43 preschoolers with ASD and 46 typically developing children (TDC). Based on Kullback-Leibler divergence, morphological brain networks were constructed for all subjects. We analyzed the topological properties of the brain networks in both groups using graph-theoretic methods and examined the correlation between the properties of ASD and clinical symptoms. In comparison to the TDC group, the ASD group exhibited reduced small worldness, along with increased clustering coefficient and local efficiency (q < 0.05). Notable changes in nodal properties included an increase in degree centrality in the left anterior cingulate gyrus and left fusiform gyrus, as well as decreased efficiency indices (p < 0.011). Furthermore, the degree centrality value of the left fusiform gyrus in the ASD group was positively correlated with total scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (r = 0.435, uncorrected p = 0.004), as well as with the communication (r = 0.416, uncorrected p = 0.006) and social interaction (r = 0.419, uncorrected p = 0.006) subscale scores. Alterations in individual morphological brain networks in preschool children with ASD suggest their network-level discrepancies in brain development, which may be associated with a difference in social functioning observed in individuals with ASD. The findings of this study offer a neuroimaging clue for investigating the underlying mechanisms of ASD, and provide reference for early identification.

PMID:
42412358
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.