Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by severe deficits in face processing. We achieved MR diffusion imaging of 27 infants (~2yo) with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, a population at risk of autism, and assessed whether the structural connectivity fingerprint of their fusiform gyrus, a central region in face perception, can predict the Autism Observation Scale for Infants total score. We found that the diffusion tensor imaging connectivity fingerprint had poor prediction capabilities. In contrast, a diffusion compartment imaging, fixel-based fingerprint captured the structure of the abnormal connectivity in infants at risk of ASD and allowed in-sample prediction with a correlation of 0.97.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.