Research progress on MRI in children with autism spectrum disorder
LIU Lizhen
GAO Yingshuang
LAI Wei
Abstract：Autism spectrum disorder(ASD)is a type of neurodevelopmental disorders that onset in childhood,and its neurobiological mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)technology,due to its non-invasive nature and multi-parameter advantages,has played an important role in revealing brain structure,white mat-ter connectivity,functional networks,and neurochemical abnormalities in children with ASD.In the MRI studies of chil-dren with ASD,structural MRI and diffusion tensor imaging studies involve abnormalities in multiple brain regions'struc-tures and white matter microstructures,suggesting gender dependence and developmental dynamics;magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies focus on abnormal changes in metabolites related to excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission;blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI studies mainly revolve around functional connectivity patterns and their plas-ticity characteristics.In recent years,the application of multimodal MRI fusion and artificial intelligence methods in the identification of ASD neuro-subtypes and auxiliary diagnosis has been increasing,but its clinical promotion is still affected by factors such as result heterogeneity,insufficient sample representativeness,and limited methodological standardiza-tion.In-depth research on the multimodal MRI characteristics of children with ASD can provide objective evidence for fur-ther understanding its neurobiological basis and optimizing clinical assessment.
Keywords：autism spectrum disorderchildrenmagnetic resonance imagingmultimodal fusionneuroimaging
Publication Date：2026-02-25
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-19(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 143-148 )