Fig. 6

Summary on ASD and its subtypes related fALFF-GM covarying patterns: ASD (a orange), Asperger’s (b blue), PDD-NOS (c green) and Autistic (d red). The DLPFC and SM_TG are the common functional–structural covarying cortical brain areas among ASD and its related Asperger’s, PDD-NOS and Autistic subgroups. Fusiform and lingual gyrus are also the common brain areas for the three subtypes, but with different modalities. The main differences comparing Asperger’s, PDD-NOS and Autistic are the negative functional subcortical brain areas, including negative putamen–parahippocampus that is unique to Asperger’s subgroup; negative ACC that is unique to PDD-NOS subgroup and negative thalamus–amygdala–caudate that is unique to the Autistic subgroup. Broca’s area was identified for Autistic and PDD-NOS subgroups, but not for Asperger’s. Each subtype-related pattern is correlated differentially with ADOS subdomains, and these features only predict the corresponding groups but not others. Arrows in the right column mean the features are predictive for the corresponding subgroup. “\(\ne\)” denotes the features from this subgroup are not predictable for the other two subgroups. DLPFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; SM_TG is superior and middle temporal gyrus; THA is thalamus; AMY is amygdala; CAU is caudate; FUS is fusiform; PAR is parahippocampus; PUT is putamen; ACC is anterior cingulate cortex