Systematically describing the structural topological configuration of human brain during development is an essential task. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a powerful challenge for psychiatry and neuroscience researchers. In this study, we investigated variations in the structural covariance network properties of 441 patients with ASD ranging in age from 7 to 45 years and in 426 age‐matched healthy controls (HCs) using structural magnetic resonance neuroimaging from the ABIDE database. We applied a sliding window approach to study topological variation during development using comprehensive graph theoretical analysis. The main findings are as follows: (1) Cross‐sectional trajectories of the network characteristics exhibited inverted U‐shapes in both HCs and participants with ASD, with the latter exhibiting a 7‐year delay in reaching the maximum value, (2) network resilience to targeted attacks peaked at 18′ and 19′ in the HCs and at 25′ in the participants with ASD, and the weakest resilience occurred at age 7′, (3) the HCs and participants with ASD exhibited normalized mean degree differences in the right amygdala, and (4) significant differences in the network characteristics were observed in the 18′ age group at most of the densities analyzed. We used cross‐sectional analysis to infer distinct neurodevelopmental trajectories in ASD in the brain structural connectome. Our findings are consistent with the notion that adolescence is a sensitive period of brain development with strong potential for brain plasticity, offering opportunities for environmental adaptation and social integration and for increasing vulnerability. ASD may be a product of susceptibility.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍儿童和成人脑结构协方差网络特征的差异

系统地描述发育过程中人脑的结构拓扑结构是一项基本任务。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）对精神病学和神经科学研究者提出了强大的挑战。在这项研究中，我们使用ABIDE数据库中的结构磁共振神经成像技术调查了441名ASD患者的年龄在7至45岁之间的426个年龄匹配的健康对照（HCs）在结构协方差网络中的变异。我们使用滑动窗口方法，通过使用全面的图论分析来研究开发过程中的拓扑变化。主要发现如下：（1）在HC和ASD参与者中，网络特征的横截面轨迹呈倒U型。后者在达到最大值时延迟了7年，（2）HCs对目标攻击的网络弹性在HC的18'和19'最高，而ASD参与者在25'的峰值，而最弱的弹性发生在年龄7'，（3）HC和ASD参与者的右杏仁核表现出标准化的平均程度差异，（4）在大多数分析的密度下，在18'年龄组中观察到网络特征的显着差异。我们使用横截面分析来推断大脑结构连接体中ASD中不同的神经发育轨迹。我们的发现与以下观点一致：青春期是大脑发育的敏感时期，具有很强的大脑可塑性，为适应环境和社会融合以及增加脆弱性提供了机会。