News Release

Researchers find disrupted functional connectivity in cerebellum of adults with HF-ASD

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

<i>Brain Connectivity</i>

image: Brain Connectivity is the essential peer-reviewed journal covering groundbreaking findings in the rapidly advancing field of connectivity research at the systems and network levels. view more 

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, September 5, 2018--A new study using an unbiased, whole-brain data-driven approach to assess the resting-state functional connectome in young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) found two clusters of abnormal connectivity in the cerebellum. This finding, which supports a crucial role for the cerebellum in ASD and highlights the cerebellum as a potential therapeutic and diagnostic target, is reported in an article in Brain Connectivity, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Brain Connectivity website through October 5, 2018.

Sheeba Arnold Anteraper, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, together with a team of researchers from Mass General Hospital, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, Weston High School, Weston, MA, and Harvard Medical School, Boston coauthored the article entitled "Disrupted Cerebrocerebellar Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Data-Driven, Whole-Brain, High-Temporal Resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study /a>."

The researchers described the use of connectome-wide multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) using functional MRI (fMRI) data acquisition and analysis techniques to investigate resting-state functional-connectivity (RsFc) differences between healthy controls and adults with HF-ASD.

"Autism is characterized by poor social interactions and motor skill dysfunction. Improving motor skills in autistic children has been shown to help autistic individuals develop stronger social skills," states Christopher Pawela, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Brain Connectivity. "The cerebellum is a brain region proven to be involved in body movement and has been proposed as the brain origin of motor skill dysfunction in autism. Dr. Arnold Anteraper and her colleagues have added to the existing literature implicating the cerebellum in autism-associated motor skill deficits and further identify sub-regions of the cerebellum as potential therapeutic targets."

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About the Journal

Brain Connectivity is the essential peer-reviewed journal covering groundbreaking findings in the rapidly advancing field of connectivity research at the systems and network levels. Published 10 times per year in print and online, the Journal is under the leadership of Founding and Co-Editors-in-Chief Christopher Pawela, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Bharat Biswal, PhD, Chair of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology. It includes original peer-reviewed papers, review articles, point-counterpoint discussions on controversies in the field, and a product/technology review section. To ensure that scientific findings are rapidly disseminated, articles are published Instant Online within 72 hours of acceptance, with fully typeset, fast-track publication within 4 weeks. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Brain Connectivity website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Neurotrauma and Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.


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