About this Research Topic
Specifically with respect to the wealth of neuroimaging findings, fundamental questions still await definitive answers. Among these are:
• How can the inconsistencies in the fcMRI literature – with abundant evidence of underconnectivity in many functional networks contrasting with some reports of overconnectivity in ASD – be explained and reconciled?
• How do findings for low temporal frequency bands from fcMRI relate to those for higher frequencies, as detected by EEG and MEG?
• What are the underlying pathological changes suggested by DTI findings of reduced fractional anisotropy or increased mean and radial diffusion?
• How does evidence of white matter compromise and abnormal functional connectivity in children and adults relate to evidence of early brain overgrowth in infants that develop ASD?
• What are the links between abnormalities of functional and anatomical connectivity and those of cortical organization, e.g., those affecting cytoarchitecture or regional cortical thickness?
• How can techniques that are not typically applied in connectivity studies (e.g., TMS, MR spectroscopy) contribute to the understanding of connectivity in ASD?
• How do imaging findings inform us about the causation of sociocommunicative and other impairments in ASD? How can we determine whether they provide developmental explanations or simply reflect atypical social interaction in children with ASD?
We welcome contributions addressing one (or several) of the questions above or any other relevant questions related to network connectivity in ASD. Specifically, we welcome not only authors with a track record in ASD connectivity research, but also those in fields not conventionally considered to be related to connectivity (e.g., postmortem cytoarchitectonics, brain volumetrics, computational modeling), who may add valuable ‘outside-the-box’ contributions. The main goal of this venture is to search for a comprehensive and cohesive framework for better conceptualization of connection abno
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.