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Abstract #2697

Age-related alteration in topological efficiency of structural network in children with autism aged 2-7 years

Minhui Ouyang1, Hua Cheng2, Di Hu2, Limei Song1, Yun Peng2, and Hao Huang1,3

1Department of Radiology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 2Department of Radiology, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, 3Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Relatively flat white matter (WM) microstructural changes have been found in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 2-7 years yet faster WM microstructural maturation in typically developing (TD) children were observed. In this study, we further investigated the WM structural networks in children with ASD and TD children using diffusion MRI tractography and graph-theory-based analysis. Higher global and local topological efficiencies were found in the ASD. Similar to age-related WM microstructural maturation pattern, the global, local and nodal efficiencies established with structural network increase significantly faster in TD children than those in children with ASD.

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