Fig. 2 |. Functional connectivity correlates of autism spectrum disorder symptoms.
a, Mean correlation between RSFC features and behavior scores for verbal IQ-related dimension (on cross-validation (CV) training folds). Heat map (left) labeled by brain region (x axis) and RSFC network (y axis), showing a subset of RSFC features with strong loadings for dimension (maximum RSFC-to-dimension correlation; FDR < 0.05; 247 ROIs mapped to 37 brain regions, collapsed over hemispheres). Chord plot (middle) depicts connectivity score correlations for the most important RSFC features (>1 connection with FDR < 0.001). Glass brain (right) depicts neuroanatomical distribution of RSFC features in chord plot. b, Mean correlation between RSFC features and behavior scores for social affect-related dimension (on CV training folds). c, Mean correlation between RSFC features and behavior scores for RRB-related dimension (on CV training folds). d, Heat map of atypical connectivity in N = 299 individuals with ASD compared to N = 907 neurotypical controls (two-sided Welch’s t-test; FDR < 0.001), showing maximum atypical connectivity statistic between ROIs within each of the 37 brain region groups. See Extended Data Fig. 1 for whole-brain (247 × 247 ROIs) results. e, Venn diagram indicating the number of RSFC features (of 247 × 247) correlated with dimensions in a–c but not atypical (yellow; nRSFC = 1,137; FDR < 0.05) and number of RSFC features not correlated with any dimension but atypical (green; nRSFC = 4,257; FDR < 0.05). Only 13.4% of symptom-predictive RSFC features (overlap; nRSFC = 176 of 1,313; FDR < 0.05) were also atypical. f, Venn diagram indicating number of RSFC features (of 247 × 247) significantly (FDR < 0.05) correlated with each dimension. Each RSFC dimension score was associated with a mostly unique set of RSFC features. ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; antPFC, anterior prefrontal cortex; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; IOG, inferior orbital gyrus; IPL, inferior parietal lobe; ITG, inferior temporal gyrus; MCC, medial cingulate cortex; NAcc, nucleus accumbens; OFC, orbital frontal cortex; paraHC, parahippocampus; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; SM, somatomotor; SMA, supplementary motor area; STG, superior temporal gyrus; Temp Pole, temporal pole; VLPFC, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; VMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex.