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. 2023 Dec 15:17:1279909.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1279909. eCollection 2023.

Thalamic functional connectivity and sensorimotor processing in neurodevelopmental disorders

Smitha Karavallil Achuthan  1 , Despina Stavrinos  2 , Paula Argueta  1 , Caroline Vanderburgh  1 , Haley B Holm  3 , Rajesh K Kana  1
Affiliations

Thalamic functional connectivity and sensorimotor processing in neurodevelopmental disorders

Smitha Karavallil Achuthan et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

One of the earliest neurobiological findings in autism has been the differences in the thalamocortical pathway connectivity, suggesting the vital role thalamus plays in human experience. The present functional MRI study investigated resting-state functional connectivity of the thalamus in 49 (autistic, ADHD, and neurotypical) young adults. All participants underwent structural MRI and eyes-open resting state functional MRI scans. After preprocessing the imaging data using Conn's connectivity toolbox, a seed-based functional connectivity analysis was conducted using bilateral thalamus as primary seeds. Autistic participants showed stronger thalamic connectivity, relative to ADHD and neurotypical participants, between the right thalamus and right precentral gyrus, right pars opercularis-BA44, right postcentral gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule (RSPL). Autistic participants also showed significantly increased connectivity between the left thalamus and the right precentral gyrus. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between autistic traits and left thalamic-precentral connectivity (R2 = 0.1113), as well as between autistic traits and right postcentral gyrus and RSPL connectivity (R2 = 0.1204) in autistic participants compared to ADHD. These findings provide significant insights into the role of thalamus in coordinating neural information processing and its alterations in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords: ADHD; autism; connectivity; fMRI; resting-state; thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Seed-to-voxel connectivity of right and left thalamus. Autistic participants showing hyperconnectivity compared to ADHD participants.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seed-to-voxel connectivity of right and left thalamus. Autistic participants showing hyperconnectivity compared to NT participants.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Contrast Autism > ADHD, left thalamus as seed: linear regression plot of the connectivity values from the right precentral gyrus with the AQ raw cut off scores from autistic participants; (B) the contrast Autism > ADHD, right thalamus as seed; the linear regression plot of the connectivity values from right post central gyrus and right superior parietal lobule with the AQ raw cut off scores from autistic participants; (C) the contrast Autism > ADHD, left thalamus as seed: linear regression plot of connectivity values from right precentral gyrus with the AQ raw cut off scores from ADHD participants; (D) shows the contrast Autism > ADHD, right thalamus as seed: linear regression plot of connectivity values from right post central gyrus and right superior parietal lobule with the AQ raw cut off scores from ADHD participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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