Global Cerebral and Regional Multimodal Neuroimaging Markers of the Neurobiology of Autism: Development and Cognition

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the microstructure and macrostructure in children with autism report contradictory results due, in part, to the autistic population heterogeneity from factors such as variation in intellect and inadequately accounting for age-related changes in brain development. In this report, the authors compared global and regional volumetry, relaxometry, anisotropy, and diffusometry of gray and white matter in 10 autism spectrum disorder children relative to the age-related trajectories obtained from 38 typically developing controls while controlling for nonverbal intellect using a validated quantitative MRI method. The normalized hippocampus volume increased with age in both autistic and typically developing individuals with limbic structures larger in autistic patients. Hippocampus volume, but not diffusivity or relaxation time, was larger in autistic children. Hippocampus volume was inversely correlated with nonverbal intellect across control individuals. The pattern of hippocampal abnormalities suggests a disturbance in early brain development in autistic children independent of intellect.