Abstract #3726

Altered Functional Significance of Structural Connectivity for Language Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Yu-Chun Lo¹, Susan Shur-Fen Gau², Wen-Yih Isaac Tseng,¹³

¹Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; ²Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; ³Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

This study investigated structural connectivity of the dorsal and ventral pathways of the language network using diffusion spectrum imaging tractogrpahy, and its functional significance corresponding to verbal IQ (VIQ) and verbal comprehension index (VCI). The results showed that structural connectivity of the left dorsal pathway in neurotypicals was associated with VIQ (r = 0.493, p=.0027), whereas structural connectivity of the left ventral pathway was associated with VCI (r = 0.447, p=.0048). These findings suggest that the functional significance of structural connectivity for language processing is altered in ASD.