Advances in multimodality neuroimaging studies of autism spectrum disorders / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a complex,behaviorally defined,mental disorder with uncertain causes although it is more likely caused by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.ASD's heterogeneity in pathology and phenotype makes it difficult to accurately diagnose individual patients.Therefore,it is an urgent need to develop effective tools for screening susceptible individuals for early diagnosis and treatment.This paper reviews recent neuroimaging and imaging genetic studies of ASD.The existing results indicate that proper combination of multimodal neuroimaging techniques and genetic technology is expected to reveal the pathological mechanism of ASD and might help find objective biomarkers for achieving an early and accurate diagnosis of ASD.