Journal
BRAIN RESEARCH
Volume 1362, Issue -, Pages 141-149Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.09.051
Keywords
Autism spectrum disorder; Diffusion tensor imaging; Social impairment; White matter; Childhood
Categories
Funding
- Japan Foundation for Neuroscience and Mental Health
- Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [22591311] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have severe difficulties in social interaction and communication, as well as restricted and/or stereotyped patterns of behavior. Previous studies have suggested that abnormal neural connectivity might be associated with higher information processing dysfunction involving social impairment. However, the white matter structure in ASD is poorly understood. To explore this, we conducted a voxel-based, whole-brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis to determine fractional anisotropy (FA), lambda(1), lambda(2) and lambda(3) in high-functioning children with ASD compared with age-, gender-, and handedness-matched healthy control participants. We then investigated whether DTI parameters were associated with behaviorally measured social function. We found that FA and lambda(1) were significantly lower in the ASD group than in the control group in the white matter around left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporo-parietal junction, right temporal pole, amygdala, superior longitudinal fasciculus, occipitofrontal fasciculus, mid- and left anterior corpus callosum, and mid- and right anterior cingulate cortex. The FA value in the left DLPFC was negatively correlated with the degree of social impairment in children with ASD. Higher values were observed in the cerebellar vermis lobules in the ASD group. The white matter alterations in children with ASD were around cortical regions that play important roles in social cognition and information integration. These DTI results and their relationship to social impairment add to evidence of cerebral and cerebellar white matter structural abnormalities in ASD. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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