Effects Of Mini-Basketball Training Program On Repetitive Stereotypic Behavior And Executive Control Network In Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background:The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness"(DSM-V)pointed out that social communication and communication barriers and repetitive stereotypes are the two core obstacles of Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD).Current research on autism pay more attention to individual social damage,pay less attention to repetitive stereotypes,and the mechanism of repetitive stereotypes is not clear.Repeated stereotypes seriously affect the social integration and social skills acquisition of ASD children,and hinder the development of ASD children’s functional behavior.Studies have confirmed that the abnormal connection of the executive control network of ASD children is closely related to the occurrence of repetitive stereotypes.How to adopt effective measures to improve the repeated stereotyped behaviors of ASD children and the abnormal connection of executive control network functions has become a key issue to be urgently addressed in the field of autism research.Current studies have shown that physical exercise as an effective intervention method can promote the physical and mental development of ASD children and improve their repetitive stereotypes,but its neural mechanism has not been revealed.Objective:The 12-week small basketball exercise was used as an intervention method to investigate the changes in the 12-week small basketball exercise’s repetitive stereotyped behavior and executive control network function changes in preschool ASD children.The correlation of connection changes reveals the neural mechanism of small basketball to improve the repetitive stereotyped behaviors of ASD children,and provides scientific evidence for elucidating the relationship between sports and the repetitive stereotyped behavior improvement of ASD children.Methods:From the ChuYing Child Development Center and XingHang Educational Institutions in Yangzhou City,30 preschool-aged ASD children who met the diagnostic criteria were selected and divided into an experimental group(15)and a control group(15).At the beginning,small basketball sports interventions were carried out(40 minutes each time,5 times a week,12 weeks),the control group only received regular behavioral rehabilitation interventions in institutions,and normal learning and life during the sports interventions in the experimental group.Repetitive behavior scale-revised(RBS-R)was used to measure the changes of repetitive stereotype behaviors of preschool ASD children before and after small basketball exercise intervention;using Resting-state Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,Rs-fMRI)technology and Functional Connectivity(FC)analysis method based on Region of Interest(ROI)to evaluate the functional connection changes of the executive control network of ASD children before and after the intervention of small basketball games.Results:(1)Before and after the 12-week mini basketball intervention,the ASD children’s time-repeated total score,stereotyped behavior,self-injury behavior,and restricted behavior in the four dimensions of time × group interaction were[F(1,28)=8.84,P<0.01,ηp2=0.24],[F(1,28)=9.06,P<0.05,ηp2=0.244],[F(1,28)=5.41,P<0.05,ηp2=0.162]and[F(1,28)=6.624,P<0.01,ηp2=0.191],the difference is statistically significant;in the three dimensions of forced behavior,ritual behavior,and monotonous behavior,the time × group interactions are[F(1,28)=1.506,P>0.05,ηp2=0.051],[F(1,28)=1.311,P>0.05,ηp2=0.045],[F(1,28)=0.148,P>0.05,ηP2=0.005],the difference was not statistically significant.(2)Before and after the 12-week mini basketball intervention,the control network was connected before and after the intervention.The difference was statistically significant.The specific results were:the left frontal gyrus and the right cerebellum(P=0.025<0.05),and the left temporal gyrus.With the right cerebellum(P=0.014<0.05),there were significant changes in the functional connectivity of 2 pairs of ROIs.Conclusion:The 12-week small basketball exercise intervention can improve the repetitive stereotyped behavior of preschool ASD children,and its neural mechanism may involve the improvement of the executive control network function connection of the 12-week small basketball exercise intervention of preschool ASD children.