ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1590185
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy characteristics in children with autism spectrum disorder under animated video modeling therapy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong Province, China
- 2Department of Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: To investigate the impact of animated video modeling (AVM) on the brain function of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).Methods: Fifteen children with ASD and 15 matched typically developing (TD) controls were enrolled. fNIRS was used to obtain 8-min data in quiet and visually stimulated states, with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and bilateral occipital lobe as regions of interest (ROIs). Based on the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) over time, correlation coefficient analysis was performed to calculate functional connection strength, and the intergroup disparity was compared.The ASD group showed significantly lower functional connection strength.Comparison of the ROI-ROI functional connectivity strength revealed significant differences in connectivity patterns of the right dorsolateral prefrontal lobe (RDLPFC), left dorsolateral prefrontal lobe (LDLPFC), mPFC, right occipital lobe (ROL), and left occipital lobe (LOL) with other brain regions. Extremely significant differences were found between the RDLPFC/RPMC, ROL/RPMC, LOL/RPMC, and LOL/LIPL. The functional connectivity strength of children with ASD was significantly higher during visual stimulation than during the quiet test. Comparison between the ROI-ROI functional connectivity strengths revealed significant differences in the connectivity strength of the RDLPFC/LOL, LDLPFC/LIPL, mPFC/RPMC, mPFC/LPMC, mPFC/LIPL, ROL/RPM, ROL.RIPL, ROL/LIPL, and LOL/LIPL. Extremely significant differences were observed between the ROL/RPMC and ROL/RIPL. Conclusions: AVM can improve visual perception and information processing in children with ASD, by strengthening the functional connectivity between the occipital and inferior parietal cortices.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, animated video modeling, brain functional connectivity, visual stimulation, functional near-infrared spectroscopy
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Li, Zhang, Liu, Zhang, Huang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wei Li, Department of Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.