Modeling the dynamic brain network representation for autism spectrum disorder diagnosis

Abstract

The dynamic functional connectivity analysis provides valuable information for understanding functional brain activity underlying different cognitive processes. Modeling spatio-temporal dynamics in functional brain networks is critical for underlying the functional mechanism of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In our study, we propose a machine learning approach for the classification of neurological disorders while providing an interpretable framework, which thoroughly captures spatio-temporal features in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data. Specifically, we first transform rs-fMRI time-series into temporal multi-graph using the sliding window technique. A temporal multi-graph clustering is then designed to eliminate the inconsistency of the temporal multi-graph series. Then, a graph structure-aware LSTM (GSA-LSTM) is further proposed to capture the spatio-temporal embedding for temporal graphs. Furthermore, The proposed GSA-LSTM can not only capture discriminative features for prediction but also impute the incomplete graphs for the temporal multi-graph series. Extensive experiments on the autism brain imaging data exchange (ABIDE) dataset demonstrate that the proposed dynamic brain network embedding learning outperforms the state-of-the-art brain network classification models. Furthermore, the obtained clustering results are consistent with the previous neuroimaging-derived evidence of biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Diagnosis; Dynamic brain network; Resting-state fMRI; Spatio-temporal modeling.