Figure 2.
Using ‘connectedness’ to identify seed regions of interest that yield differences in functional connectivity between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) groups. For each participant, in A, functional connectedness was calculated for each voxel within the brain mask by first extracting its specific time series (i.e. the ‘seed’), then correlating it with all of the other voxels’ time series. These correlation values were then averaged over the brain mask, storing the mean value back into the seed voxel, and this process was then repeated for all voxels. For group analyses, in B, individual connectedness maps were transformed to normally distributed values (Fisher’s z) and averaged by group (autism spectrum disorders versus typically developing) (shown are the group-average z-transformed connectedness values, 
; see colour bar). (C) The normally distributed group maps could then be compared using t-tests (P < 0.05, two-tailed, minimum cluster size = 100 contiguous voxels). Data for this and subsequent figures are plotted in standard anatomical coordinates (Talairach-Tournoux).