Shared atypical spontaneous brain activity pattern in early onset schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders: evidence from cortical surface-based analysis

Abstract Schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were considered as two neurodevelopmental disorders and had shared clinical features. we hypothesized that they have some common atypical brain functions and the purpose of this study was to explored the shared brain spontaneous activity strength alterations in early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and ASD in the children and adolescents with a multi-center large-sample study. A total of 171 EOS patients (aged 14.25 ± 1.87), 188 ASD patients (aged 9.52 ± 5.13), and 107 healthy controls (aged 11.52 ± 2.82) had scanned with Resting-fMRI and analyzed surface-based amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF). Results showed that both EOS and ASD had hypoactivity in the primary sensorimotor regions (bilateral primary and early visual cortex, left ventral visual stream, left primary auditory cortex) and hyperactivity in the high-order transmodal regions (bilateral SFL, bilateral DLPFC, right frontal eye fields), and bilateral thalamus. EOS had more severe abnormality than ASD. This study revealed shared functional abnormalities in the primary sensorimotor regions and the high-order transmodal regions in EOS and ASD, which provided neuroimaging evidence of common changes in EOS and ASD, and may help with better early recognition and precise treatment for EOS and ASD.