AUTHOR=Ursino Mauro , Serra Michele , Tarasi Luca , Ricci Giulia , Magosso Elisa , Romei Vincenzo TITLE=Bottom-up vs. top-down connectivity imbalance in individuals with high-autistic traits: An electroencephalographic study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience VOLUME=16 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2022.932128 DOI=10.3389/fnsys.2022.932128 ISSN=1662-5137 ABSTRACT=
Brain connectivity is often altered in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is little consensus on the nature of these alterations, with studies pointing to either increased or decreased connectivity strength across the broad autism spectrum. An important confound in the interpretation of these contradictory results is the lack of information about the directionality of the tested connections. Here, we aimed at disambiguating these confounds by measuring differences in directed connectivity using EEG resting-state recordings in individuals with low and high autistic traits. Brain connectivity was estimated using temporal Granger Causality applied to cortical signals reconstructed from EEG. Between-group differences were summarized using centrality indices taken from graph theory (