Many studies have reported that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with atypical structural and functional connectivity. However, we know relatively little about the development of these differences in infancy. We used a high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) dataset pooled from two independent infant sibling cohorts, to characterize such neurodevelopmental deviations during the first years of life. EEG was recorded at 6 and 12 months of age in infants at typical (N = 92) or elevated likelihood for ASD (N = 90), determined by the presence of an older sibling with ASD. We computed the functional connectivity between cortical sources of EEG during video watching using the corrected imaginary part of phase-locking values. Our main analysis found no significant association between functional connectivity and ASD, showing only significant effects for age, sex, age-sex interaction, and site. Given these null results, we performed an exploratory analysis and observed, at 12 months, a negative correlation between functional connectivity and ADOS calibrated severity scores for restrictive and repetitive behaviors (RRB). The small sample of ASD participants inherent to sibling studies limits diagnostic group comparisons. Also, results from our secondary exploratory analysis should be considered only as potential relationships to further explore, given their increased vulnerability to false positives. These results are inconclusive concerning an association between EEG functional connectivity and ASD in infancy. Exploratory analyses provided preliminary support for a relationship between RRB and functional connectivity specifically, but these preliminary observations need corroboration on larger samples.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍家族可能性升高的婴儿脑电图功能连接

许多研究报告称，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）与非典型的结构和功能连接有关。然而，我们对婴儿期这些差异的发展知之甚少。我们使用来自两个独立婴儿兄弟姐妹队列的高密度脑电图（EEG）数据集来表征生命最初几年的此类神经发育偏差。在 6 个月和 12 个月大的婴儿中记录了典型（N = 92）或较高的 ASD 可能性（N = 90）婴儿的脑电图，这取决于是否存在患有 ASD 的年长兄弟姐妹。我们使用校正后的锁相值虚部计算了视频观看期间脑电图皮质源之间的功能连接。我们的主要分析发现功能连接与自闭症谱系障碍之间没有显着关联，仅显示出年龄、性别、年龄-性别相互作用和部位的显着影响。鉴于这些无效结果，我们进行了探索性分析，并在 12 个月时观察到功能连接与 ADOS 校准的限制性和重复行为 (RRB) 严重程度评分之间存在负相关。兄弟姐妹研究固有的自闭症谱系障碍参与者样本较少，限制了诊断组的比较。此外，考虑到我们的二次探索性分析的结果更容易出现误报，因此应仅将其视为进一步探索的潜在关系。关于脑电图功能连接与婴儿期自闭症谱系障碍之间的关联，这些结果尚无定论。探索性分析为 RRB 与功能连接之间的关系提供了初步支持，但这些初步观察结果需要在更大的样本上得到证实。