Comprehensive Summary
This study, conducted by Kang et al., examines the differences in brain activity in pediatric patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with typical development (TD). The study analyzed the brain functional networks for children with ASD and TD through microstate static functional connectivity and dynamic temporal variability using electroencephalography (EEG) and fuzzy entropy. Additionally, the brain functional network of pediatric patients with ASD was also analyzed under transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The study found differences between the static and dynamic brain networks of pediatric patients with ASD and TD, specifically a higher static functional connectivity of microstate D, a lower static functional connectivity of microstate A, and lower dynamic functional connectivity of microstates A, B, C, and D in pediatric patients with ASD. Accuracy was analyzed with support vector machine classification and yielded 96.33% accuracy. Under the impact of tDCS, the brain functional network of pediatric patients with ASD exhibited higher static functional connectivity in microstates A and C and higher dynamic functional connectivity in A, B, and D. The results demonstrated noteworthy differences between pediatric patients with ASD and those with TD brain networks, and change was caused by tDCS in both dynamic and static brain networks of pediatric patients with ASD.
Outcomes and Implications
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by abnormal brain networks, and investigating differences between normal and abnormal brain networks can assist in better understanding of ASD and aid diagnosis and clinical treatments, such as tDCS. This study should be repeated with a greater sample size in order to validate the findings of this study before it is implemented into clinical applications.