There is a report of a new method of analyzing fMRI scans – using enormous sets of data and giving very clear results. Brain-wide association analysis (BWAS for short) was used in a comparison of autistic and normal brains in a recent paper (citation below).

The scan data is divided into 47,636 small areas of the brain, voxels, and then these are analyzed in pairs, each voxel with all other voxels. This gives 1,134,570,430 data points for each brain. This sort of analysis has been done in the past but only for restricted areas of the brain and not the whole brain. The method was devised by J. Feng, University of Warwick, Computer Department.

This first paper featuring the method shows its strengths. Cheng and others used data from over 900 existing scans from various sources that had matched autistic and normal pairs. The results are in the abstract below. (This blog does not usually deal with information on autism and similar conditions but tries to keep to normal function; I am not a physician. So the results are not being discussed, just the new method.)

“A flow chart of the brain-wide association study [termed BWAS, in line with genome-wide association studies (GWAS)] is shown in Fig. 1. This ‘discovery’ approach tests for differences between patients and controls in the connectivity of every pair of brain voxels at a whole-brain level. Unlike previous seed-based or independent components-based approaches, this method has the advantage of being fully unbiased, in that the connectivity of all brain voxels can be compared, not just selected brain regions. Additionally, we investigated clinical associations between the identified abnormal circuitry and symptom severity; and we also investigated the extent to which the analysis can reliably discriminate between patients and controls using a pattern classification approach. Further, we confirmed that our findings were robust by split data cross-validations.” FC = functional connectivity; ROI = region of interest.

The results are very clear and have a very good statistical probability.

Abstract: “Whole-brain voxel-based unbiased resting state functional connectivity was analysed in 418 subjects with autism and 509 matched typically developing individuals. We identified a key system in the middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus region that has reduced cortical functional connectivity (and increased with the medial thalamus), which is implicated in face expression processing involved in social behaviour. This system has reduced functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in emotion and social communication. The middle temporal gyrus system is also implicated in theory of mind processing. We also identified in autism a second key system in the precuneus/superior parietal lobule region with reduced functional connectivity, which is implicated in spatial functions including of oneself, and of the spatial environment. It is proposed that these two types of functionality, face expression-related, and of one’s self and the environment, are important components of the computations involved in theory of mind, whether of oneself or of others, and that reduced connectivity within and between these regions may make a major contribution to the symptoms of autism.”



Cheng, W., Rolls, E., Gu, H., Zhang, J., & Feng, J. (2015). Autism: reduced connectivity between cortical areas involved in face expression, theory of mind, and the sense of self Brain DOI: 10.1093/brain/awv051