Specific Functional Connectivity Patterns of Middle Temporal Gyrus Subregions in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Weak wiring in the back of the middle temporal gyrus is a lifelong neural signature of autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team scanned the kids and the adults with autism. They used resting-state fMRI to map how the middle temporal gyrus talks to the rest of the brain.
They split this brain area into front, middle, and back parts to see which slice drives social problems.
What they found
Both age groups showed weak links in the back part of the middle temporal gyrus. This spot helps us read faces and voices.
The front slice also had odd wiring, but only in kids. The back slice problem stayed the same from childhood to adulthood.
How this fits with other research
Fründt et al. (2018) looked at mirror-neuron white matter and found no damage. Jinping now shows the problem is not the wire itself, but how the wire is used.
Ibrahim et al. (2021) proved social-cognitive training can boost medial prefrontal activity. Jinping’s map points to a new target: the back middle temporal gyrus. Training that lights up this weak spot could lift social skills.
YMitchell et al. (2025) used the same fMRI tool to spot future delays in preterm babies. Jinping turns the same lens on autism, showing the method can flag lifelong social brain patterns.
Why it matters
You now have a clear neural marker that stays stable across ages. When a child shows weak back-middle-temporal connectivity, expect the same pattern at 30. This gives you a fixed target for long-term social skills programs and a way to track if your intervention rewires the weak spot.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a quick social-cognitive probe—like reading a silent cartoon strip—and note if the learner struggles; flag these cases for extra MTG-targeted practice.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
As one of the key regions in the "social brain" network, the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) has been widely reported to be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but there have been contradictory results in terms of whether it shows hyperconnectivity or hypoconnectivity. Delineating roles of MTG at the subregional level may eliminate the observed inconsistencies and provide a new avenue to reveal the neurophysiologic mechanism of ASD. Thus, we first performed connectivity-based parcellation using the BrainMap database to identify fine-grained functional topography of the MTG. Then, the MTG subregions were used to investigate differences in the functional connectivity in children and adults with ASD using two data sets from Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database. Four distinct subregions in the human left and right MTG were identified, including the anterior MTG (aMTG), middle-anterior MTG (maMTG), middle-posterior MTG, and posterior MTG (pMTG). The bilateral pMTG was more vulnerable in both children and adults with ASD than in the typically developing (TD) group, mainly showing hypoconnectivity with different brain regions. In addition, the bilateral aMTG and right maMTG also showed altered functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to the TD group. Moreover, all these altered MTG subregions were mainly associated with social cognition and language, as revealed by functional characterization. Further correlation analyses also showed trends of association between altered connectivity of the left aMTG and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores in adults with ASD. Together, these results suggest a potential objective way to explore sub-regional differences associated with such disorders. Autism Res 2020, 13: 410-422. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Four distinct subregions in the human left and right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) were identified, including the anterior MTG (aMTG), middle-anterior MTG (maMTG), middle-posterior MTG, and posterior MTG (pMTG). The bilateral pMTG was more vulnerable in both children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than in the typically developing (TD) group, mainly showing hypoconnectivity with different brain regions. In addition, the bilateral aMTG and right maMTG also showed altered functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to the TD group. Moreover, all these altered MTG subregions were mainly associated with social cognition and language, as revealed by functional characterization. Further correlation analyses also showed trends of association between altered connectivity of the left aMTG and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores in adults with ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2239