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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1507890
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative and Cutting-edge Approaches to the Identification and Management of Autism Spectrum Disorders View all 4 articles

Reduced prefrontal hemodynamic responses measured using near-infrared spectroscopy in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Provisionally accepted
Kohei Kamikawa Kohei Kamikawa 1Kazuhiko Yamamuro Kazuhiko Yamamuro 2,3*Ryo Mizui Ryo Mizui 1Natsuko Kashida Natsuko Kashida 1Rio Ishida Rio Ishida 1,4,5Takashi Okada Takashi Okada 1Nakao Iwata Nakao Iwata 4Manabu Makinodan Manabu Makinodan 1,4,5
  • 1 Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan
  • 2 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan
  • 3 Center for Health Control, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan
  • 4 Department of Psychiatry, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan
  • 5 Division of Transformative Psychiatry and Synergistic Research, International Center for Brain Science, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Functional neuroimaging studies have suggested that prefrontal cortex dysfunction occurs in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive optical tool used to investigate oxygenation and hemodynamic responses in the cerebral cortex by measuring changes in oxygenated hemoglobin. Previous studies using NIRS have suggested that male children with ASD exhibit reduced hemodynamic responses in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; however, only a few studies examined this response in adults with ASD.We examined the characteristics of prefrontal hemodynamic responses in 114 adults with ASD and 84 typically developing controls. Relative concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobinwere measured with frontal probes every 0.1 s during the Stroop color-word task, using 24channel NIRS.Our findings demonstrated that the oxygenated hemoglobin changes in the ASD group were significantly smaller than those in the control group at channels 19, 20, 23, and 24-located over the orbitofrontal cortex and frontal pole (p <0.05 for all three channels). The differences in oxygenated hemoglobin changes at Ch 20 were significantly correlated with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Japanese version (AQ-J) total score and attention switching score, which is a symptom cluster of AQ-J (p = 0.043 and p = 0.009, respectively).Adults with ASD have reduced prefrontal hemodynamic responses as measured using nearinfrared spectroscopy and the reduced activity of the frontal pole in particular is related to reduced attention function.

    Keywords: near-infrared spectroscopy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Prefrontal Cortex, hemodynamic response, Hemodynamic responses

    Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kamikawa, Yamamuro, Mizui, Kashida, Ishida, Okada, Iwata and Makinodan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kazuhiko Yamamuro, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.