Disrupted Resting-State Functional Connectivity in the Social Visual Pathway in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The social visual pathway, which diverges from the dorsal pathway at the visual motion area (MT/V5) and runs from the posterior down to anterior portions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), specializes in processing dynamic social information. This study examined resting-state functional connectivity within this pathway in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children. Using data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) repository, we found significant hypoconnectivity between the posterior and middle STS (pSTS–mSTS) in the right hemisphere in children with ASD compared to those in TD children. Lower connectivity in this region of the pathway correlated with more severe social symptoms in ASD and higher indices of social communication vulnerabilities in the combined ASD and TD groups. These findings suggest that a specific disruption in the right hemisphere social visual pathway in children with ASD potentially contributes to their social difficulties.