Journal
CORTEX
Volume 47, Issue 7, Pages 863-873Publisher
ELSEVIER MASSON
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.07.006
Keywords
Autism; White matter; Inferior fronto-occipito fasciculus; Inferior longitudinal fasciculus; Diffusion tensor tractography
Funding
- NICHD/NIDCD [PO1/U19]
- National Alliance of Autism Research (Autism Speaks)
- Cure Autism Now foundation
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There is increasing recognition that many of the core behavioral impairments that characterize autism potentially emerge from poor neural synchronization across nodes comprising dispersed cortical networks. A likely candidate for the source of this atypical functional connectivity in autism is an alteration in the structural integrity of intra- and inter-hemispheric white matter (VIM) tracts that form large-scale cortical networks. To test this hypothesis, in a group of adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) and matched control participants, we used diffusion tensor tractography to compare the structural integrity of three intra-hemispheric visual-association VIM tracts, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), the inferior fronto-occipito fasciculus (IFOF) and the uncinate fasciculus (UF), with the integrity of three sub-portions of the major inter-hemispheric fiber tract, the corpus callosum. Compared with the control group, the HFA group evinced an increase in the volume of the intra-hemispheric fibers, particularly in the left hemisphere, and a reduction in the volume of the forceps minor (F-Mi) and body of the corpus callosum. The reduction in the volume of the F-Mi also correlated with an increase in repetitive and stereotypical behavior as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Interview. These findings suggest that the abnormalities in the integrity of key inter- and intra-hemispheric VIM tracts may underlie the atypical information processing observed in these individuals. (C) 2010 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.
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