Thalamic functional connectivity and sensorimotor processing in neurodevelopmental disorders

Smitha Karavallil Achuthan; Despina Stavrinos; Paula Argueta; Caroline Vanderburgh; Haley B Holm; Rajesh K Kana

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1279909

Thalamic functional connectivity and sensorimotor processing in neurodevelopmental disorders

Front Neurosci. 2023 Dec 15:17:1279909. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1279909. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Smitha Karavallil Achuthan¹, Despina Stavrinos², Paula Argueta¹, Caroline Vanderburgh¹, Haley B Holm³, Rajesh K Kana¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and the Center for Innovative Research in Autism, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States.
² Department of Psychology and the Institute of Social Science Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States.
³ Children's Hospital of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, United States.

Abstract

One of the earliest neurobiological findings in autism has been the differences in the thalamocortical pathway connectivity, suggesting the vital role thalamus plays in human experience. The present functional MRI study investigated resting-state functional connectivity of the thalamus in 49 (autistic, ADHD, and neurotypical) young adults. All participants underwent structural MRI and eyes-open resting state functional MRI scans. After preprocessing the imaging data using Conn's connectivity toolbox, a seed-based functional connectivity analysis was conducted using bilateral thalamus as primary seeds. Autistic participants showed stronger thalamic connectivity, relative to ADHD and neurotypical participants, between the right thalamus and right precentral gyrus, right pars opercularis-BA44, right postcentral gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule (RSPL). Autistic participants also showed significantly increased connectivity between the left thalamus and the right precentral gyrus. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between autistic traits and left thalamic-precentral connectivity (R² = 0.1113), as well as between autistic traits and right postcentral gyrus and RSPL connectivity (R² = 0.1204) in autistic participants compared to ADHD. These findings provide significant insights into the role of thalamus in coordinating neural information processing and its alterations in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords: ADHD; autism; connectivity; fMRI; resting-state; thalamus.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The funding support for this study was provided by the UAB Civitan International Research Center Pilot Research Award.