Mini-Basketball Training Program Improves Social Communication And White Matter Integrity In Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

While previous studies have demonstrated that exercise intervention improves social communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder,there is currently no neuroscientific evidence supporting its benefits.Here we evaluated the outcomes of a mini-basketball training program on social communication and white matter integrity(WMI)in preschool children with ASD.Thirty preschool children aged 3-6 years with ASD were assigned to either exercise group(n=15)or control group(n=14).The exercise group received a scheduled mini-basketball training program(5 sessions per week,forty minutes per session)for twelve consecutive weeks;while the control group was instructed to maintain their daily activities.Groups were assessed before and after intervention on social communication and WMI.SRS-2 total score,social cognition,social communication and autistic mannerisms scores were lower in the exercise group post-intervention.This behavioral performance results demonstrated that social communication was improved by mini-basketball training program.Relative to the control group,WMI of the exercise group showed higher fractional anisotropy(FA)in the the body of corpus callosum(bCC),fornix(FX),right cerebral peduncle(CP),left posterior limb of internal capsule(PLIC),right retrolenticular part of internal capsule(RIC),left anterior corona radiate(ACR)and left Superior fronto-occipital fasciculus(SFOF);lower mean diffusivity in the left anterior corona radiate(ACR)and the bilateral corticospinal tract(CST).Furthermore,increased WMI was associated with lower scores on a measure of SRS-2 total score in the overall sample.This study firstly provides the evidence that exercise intervention can indeed improve social communication and WMI in children with autism,lending support to further investigations of neurobiologically motivated models of exercise intervention in autism.