Title: Connectome-wide Mega-analysis Reveals Robust Patterns of Atypical Functional Connectivity in Autism

Keypoints: 

• Question- What is the large-scale functional connectivity (FC) alteration patterns in individuals with autism? Whether these alterations affect focal systems or reflect a brain-wide pattern, and whether these are age and/or sex dependent？

• Findings- Autism was associated with a brain-wide pattern of hypo- and hyperconnectivity. Hypoconnectivity predominantly affected sensory and higher-order attentional networks and correlated with social impairments, restrictive and repetitive behavior, and sensory processing. Hyperconnectivity was observed primarily between the default mode network and the rest of the brain and between cortical and subcortical systems. This pattern was strongly associated with social impairments and sensory processing. Interactions between diagnosis and age or sex were not statistically significant.

• Meaning - The FC alterations observed, which primarily involve hypoconnectivity of primary sensory and attention networks and hyperconnectivity of the default mode network and subcortex with the rest of the brain, do not appear to be age or sex dependent and correlate with clinical dimensions of social difficulties, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and alterations in sensory processing. These findings suggest that the observed connectivity alterations are stable, trait-like features of aut.

Title: Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Pediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Keypoints: 

• Question - What are the effect sizes of optimized multichannel transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive and clinical measures in youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?
• Findings - In this randomized clinical trial involving 69 youths with ADHD, tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (maximum, 10 sessions) led to significantly lower working memory accuracy as assessed on an n-back task compared with the sham group. Verum stimulation of the right inferior frontal gyrus significantly improved interference control as assessed on a flanker task.
• Meaning - These results suggest that targeted tDCS can significantly affect brain regions relevant to ADHD and should be further explored as a treatment option in pediatric ADHD while carefully controlling for cognitive adverse effects.