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Tu G, Jiang N, Chen W, Liu L, Hu M, Liao B. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the effects of exercise interventions in autistic individuals. Rev Neurosci 2024; 0:revneuro-2024-0058. [PMID: 39083671 DOI: 10.1515/revneuro-2024-0058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 07/15/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is a pervasive and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social communication difficulties and rigid, repetitive behaviors. Owing to the complex pathogenesis of autism, effective drugs for treating its core features are lacking. Nonpharmacological approaches, including education, social-communication, behavioral and psychological methods, and exercise interventions, play important roles in supporting the needs of autistic individuals. The advantages of exercise intervention, such as its low cost, easy implementation, and high acceptance, have garnered increasing attention. Exercise interventions can effectively improve the core features and co-occurring conditions of autism, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unclear. Abnormal changes in the gut microbiome, neuroinflammation, neurogenesis, and synaptic plasticity may individually or interactively be responsible for atypical brain structure and connectivity, leading to specific autistic experiences and characteristics. Interestingly, exercise can affect these biological processes and reshape brain network connections, which may explain how exercise alleviates core features and co-occurring conditions in autistic individuals. In this review, we describe the definition, diagnostic approach, epidemiology, and current support strategies for autism; highlight the benefits of exercise interventions; and call for individualized programs for different subtypes of autistic individuals. Finally, the possible neurobiological mechanisms by which exercise improves autistic features are comprehensively summarized to inform the development of optimal exercise interventions and specific targets to meet the needs of autistic individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Genghong Tu
- Department of Sports Medicine, 47878 Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Physical Activity and Health Promotion, 47878 Scientific Research Center, Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
| | - Nan Jiang
- Graduate School, 47878 Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
| | - Weizhong Chen
- Graduate School, 47878 Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
| | - Lining Liu
- Graduate School, 47878 Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
| | - Min Hu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Physical Activity and Health Promotion, 47878 Scientific Research Center, Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
| | - Bagen Liao
- Department of Sports Medicine, 47878 Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Physical Activity and Health Promotion, 47878 Scientific Research Center, Guangzhou Sport University , Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510500, P.R. China
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Stöffel T, Vaqué-Alcázar L, Bartrés-Faz D, Peró-Cebollero M, Cañete-Massé C, Guàrdia-Olmos J. Reduced default mode network effective connectivity in healthy aging is modulated by years of education. Neuroimage 2024; 288:120532. [PMID: 38331332 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Revised: 01/20/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Aging is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Even in non-pathological aging, decline in cognitive functioning is observed in the majority of the elderly population, necessitating the importance of studying the processes involved in healthy aging in order to identify brain biomarkers that promote the conservation of functioning. The default mode network (DMN) has been of special interest to aging research due to its vulnerability to atrophy and functional decline over the course of aging. Prior work has focused almost exclusively on functional (i.e. undirected) connectivity, yet converging findings are scarce. Therefore, we set out to use spectral dynamic causal modeling to investigate changes in the effective (i.e. directed) connectivity within the DMN and to discover changes in information flow in a sample of cognitively normal adults spanning from 48 to 89 years (n = 63). Age was associated to reduced verbal memory performance. Modeling of effective connectivity revealed a pattern of age-related downregulation of posterior DMN regions driven by inhibitory connections from the hippocampus and middle temporal gyrus. Additionally, there was an observed decline in the hippocampus' susceptibility to network inputs with age, effectively disconnecting itself from other regions. The estimated effective connectivity parameters were robust and able to predict the age in out of sample estimates in a leave-one-out cross-validation. Attained education moderated the effects of aging, largely reversing the observed pattern of inhibitory connectivity. Thus, medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and posterior DMN regions formed an excitatory cycle of extrinsic connections related to the interaction of age and education. This suggests a compensatory role of years of education in effective connectivity, stressing a possible target for interventions. Our findings suggest a connection to the concept of cognitive reserve, which attributes a protective effect of educational level on cognitive decline in aging (Stern, 2009).
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Affiliation(s)
- Tibor Stöffel
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain; Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2 (UZA II), Vienna 1090, Austria.
| | - Lídia Vaqué-Alcázar
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona 08036, Spain
| | - David Bartrés-Faz
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona 08036, Spain
| | - Maribel Peró-Cebollero
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain; UB Institute of Complex Systems, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain
| | - Cristina Cañete-Massé
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain
| | - Joan Guàrdia-Olmos
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain; UB Institute of Complex Systems, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035, Spain
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Zhou D, Liu Z, Gong G, Zhang Y, Lin L, Cai K, Xu H, Cong F, Li H, Chen A. Decreased Functional and Structural Connectivity is Associated with Core Symptom Improvement in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder After Mini-basketball Training Program. J Autism Dev Disord 2023:10.1007/s10803-023-06160-x. [PMID: 37882897 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-06160-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
Exercise intervention has been proven helpful to ameliorate core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we carried out a 12-week mini-basketball training program (MBTP) on ASD children and examined the changes of brain functional and structural networks before and after exercise intervention. We applied individual-based method to construct functional network and structural morphological network, and investigated their alterations following MBTP as well as their associations with the change in core symptom. Structural MRI and resting-state functional MRI data were obtained from 58 ASD children aged 3-12 years (experiment group: n = 32, control group: n = 26). ASD children who received MBTP intervention showed several distinguishable alternations compared to the control without special intervention. These included decreased functional connectivity within the sensorimotor network (SM) and between SM and the salience network, decreased morphological connectivity strength in a cortical-cortical network centered on the left inferior temporal gyrus, and a subcortical-cortical network centered on the left caudate. Particularly, the aforementioned functional and structural changes induced by MBTP were associated with core symptoms of ASD. Our findings suggested that MBTP intervention could be an effective approach to improve core symptoms in ASD children, decrease connectivity in both structure and function networks, and may drive the brain change towards normal-like neuroanatomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongyue Zhou
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Zhimei Liu
- College of Physical Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
| | - Guanyu Gong
- Department of Oncology, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, Dalian, China
| | - Yunge Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Lin Lin
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Kelong Cai
- College of Physical Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
| | - Huashuai Xu
- Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Fengyu Cong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
- Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Key Laboratory of Integrated Circuit and Biomedical Electronic System, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Huanjie Li
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
- Key Laboratory of Integrated Circuit and Biomedical Electronic System, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China.
| | - Aiguo Chen
- College of Physical Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
- Key Laboratory of Brain Disease and Integration of Sport and Health, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
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Li C, Li T, Chen Y, Zhang C, Ning M, Qin R, Li L, Wang X, Chen L. Sex differences of the triple network model in children with autism: A resting-state fMRI investigation of effective connectivity. Autism Res 2023; 16:1693-1706. [PMID: 37565548 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a pronounced male predominance, but the underlying neurobiological basis of this sex bias remains unclear. Gender incoherence (GI) theory suggests that ASD is more neurally androgynous than same-sex controls. Given its central role, altered structures and functions, and sex-dependent network differences in ASD, the triple network model, including the central executive network (CEN), default mode network (DMN), and salience network (SN), has emerged as a candidate for characterizing this sex difference. Here, we measured the sex-related effective connectivity (EC) differences within and between these three networks in 72 children with ASD (36 females, 8-14 years) and 72 typically developing controls (TCs) (36 females, 8-14 years) from 5 sites of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repositories using a 2 × 2 analysis of covariance factorial design. We also assessed brain-behavior relationships and the effects of age on EC. We found significant diagnosis-by-sex interactions on EC: females with ASD had significantly higher EC than their male counterparts within the DMN and between the SN and CEN. The interaction pattern supported the GI theory by showing that the higher EC observed in females with ASD reflected a shift towards the higher level of EC displayed in male TCs (neural masculinization), and the lower EC seen in males with ASD reflected a shift towards the lower level of EC displayed in female TCs (neural feminization). We also found significant brain-behavior correlations and significant effects of age on EC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cuicui Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Tong Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Ying Chen
- Department of Radiology, Central Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Chunling Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Central Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Mingmin Ning
- Department of Neurology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, China
| | - Rui Qin
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Lin Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Ximing Wang
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Linglong Chen
- Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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Yano N, Hosokawa K. The importance of comprehensive support based on the three pillars of exercise, nutrition, and sleep for improving core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1119142. [PMID: 37260760 PMCID: PMC10228143 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1119142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-V, which first described ASD, lists persistent deficits in social communication and interrelationships, as well as limited and recurrent modes of behavior, interests, and activities as diagnostic items. Until recently, understanding the pathophysiology of ASD has been mostly from a neurophysiological perspective, and interventions have been mostly behavioral and psychological. In recent years, however, it has become clear that ASD also affects many bodily systems, including the immune system, the sensorimotor system, and the gut-brain axis, and that these factors simultaneously influence it. In light of this background, a new "connectivome theory" has been proposed as a hypothesis for understanding ASD. "Exercise," "nutrition," and "sleep," which are discussed in this mini-review, have a particularly strong relationship with the immune, musculoskeletal, and gut systems among the pathologies mentioned in the "connectivome theory," furthermore, many reports suggest improvements in stereo-responsive behavior and social and communication skills, which are the core symptoms of ASD. In addition, these interventions are characterized by being less subject to location and cost limitations and excel in the continuity of therapeutic intervention, and the three interventions may have a reciprocal positive impact and may function as three pillars to support ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nozomu Yano
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Doctoral Course, Kagoshima University Graduate School, Kagoshima, Japan
| | - Kenji Hosokawa
- Department of Child Care and Education, Odawara Junior College, Nagoya, Japan
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Geng X, Fan X, Zhong Y, Casanova MF, Sokhadze EM, Li X, Kang J. Abnormalities of EEG Functional Connectivity and Effective Connectivity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13010130. [PMID: 36672111 PMCID: PMC9857308 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder that interferes with normal brain development. Brain connectivity may serve as a biomarker for ASD in this respect. This study enrolled a total of 179 children aged 3-10 years (90 typically developed (TD) and 89 with ASD). We used a weighted phase lag index and a directed transfer function to investigate the functional and effective connectivity in children with ASD and TD. Our findings indicated that patients with ASD had local hyper-connectivity of brain regions in functional connectivity and simultaneous significant decrease in effective connectivity across hemispheres. These connectivity abnormalities may help to find biomarkers of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinling Geng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
| | - Xiwang Fan
- Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Shanghai Pudong New Area Mental Health Center, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200124, China
| | - Yiwen Zhong
- Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Shanghai Pudong New Area Mental Health Center, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200124, China
| | - Manuel F. Casanova
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, 701 Grove Rd, Greenville, SC 29605, USA
| | - Estate M. Sokhadze
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, 701 Grove Rd, Greenville, SC 29605, USA
| | - Xiaoli Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100859, China
- Correspondence: (X.L.); (J.K.)
| | - Jiannan Kang
- College of Electronic & Information Engineering, Hebei University, Baoding 071000, China
- Correspondence: (X.L.); (J.K.)
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