2014 International Meeting for Autism Research

May 14 - 17, 2014

The functional connectivity literature on ASD has grown exponentially in the past decade, but initial consensus on ‘general underconnectivity’ has been undermined by conflicting results and the growing awareness of methodological issues (e.g., head movement, spontaneous vs. task-driven signal fluctuations) that may have dramatic effects on findings. This panel is motivated by the need for a more nuanced and developmental understanding of functional connectivity and aims to present perspectives for a comprehensive model of network abnormalities in ASD that may reconcile the vast array of diverse and often seemingly inconsistent findings. Presentations in this panel will attempt to elucidate (i) how and why MRI findings (functional connectivity, DTI) have been divergent, (ii) how different analytic approaches can provide a comprehensive view of aberrant functional connectivity, (iii) how multimodal approaches, including electrophysiological techniques such as MEG, can contribute to more differentiated models of network abnormalities in ASD, and (iv) how differential findings may be reconciled in network-specific models that relate to core symptomatology.