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. 2021 Mar;128(3):371-380.
doi: 10.1007/s00702-021-02321-3. Epub 2021 Mar 6.

Improvement of brain functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study on the potential use of virtual reality

Rosaria De Luca #  1 , Antonino Naro #  1 , Pia Valentina Colucci  1 , Federica Pranio  1 , Giuseppe Tardiolo  1 , Luana Billeri  1 , Maria Le Cause  1 , Carmela De Domenico  1 , Simona Portaro  1 , Giuseppe Rao #  1 , Rocco Salvatore Calabrò #  2
Affiliations

Improvement of brain functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study on the potential use of virtual reality

Rosaria De Luca et al. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) need to be provided with behavioral, psychological, educational, or skill-building interventions as early as possible. Cognitive Behavior Therapy has proven useful to manage such problems. There is also growing evidence on the usefulness of Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) in treating various functional deficits in ASD. This exploratory study is aimed at assessing the changes in cognitive functions in children with ASD, and the putative subtending neurophysiological mechanisms, following the provision of rehab training using an innovative VRT system. Twenty patients with ASD, aged 6-15 years, were provided with 24 sessions of VRT by using the pediatric module of the BTS NIRVANA System. Neuropsychological and EEG evaluations were carried out before and at the end of the training. After VRT, all patients showed a significant improvement in their cognitive-behavioral problems concerning attention processes, visuospatial cognition, and anxiety. These findings were paralleled by an evident reshape of frontoparietal connectivity in the alpha and theta frequency range. Our study suggests that VRT could be a useful and promising tool to improve ASD neurorehabilitation outcomes. This improvement is likely to occur through changes in frontoparietal network connectivity following VRT.

Keywords: Anxiety; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Frontoparietal connectivity; Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT).

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