Anatomy and aging of the amygdala and hippocampus in autism spectrum disorder: an in vivo magnetic resonance imaging study of Asperger syndrome

Abstract

It has been proposed that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have abnormal morphometry and development of the amygdala and hippocampus (AH). However, previous reports are inconsistent, perhaps because they included people of different ASD diagnoses, ages, and health. We compared, using magnetic resonance imaging, the in vivo anatomy of the AH in 32 healthy individuals with Asperger syndrome (12-47 years) and 32 healthy controls who did not differ significantly in age or IQ. We measured bulk (gray + white matter) volume of the AH using manual tracing (MEASURE). We first compared the volume of AH between individuals with Asperger syndrome and controls and then investigated age-related differences. We compared differences in anatomy before, and after, correcting for whole brain size. There was no significant between group differences in whole brain volume. However, individuals with Asperger syndrome had a significantly larger raw bulk volume of total (P<0.01), right (P<0.01), and left amygdala (P<0.05); and when corrected for overall brain size, total (P<0.05), and right amygdala (P<0.01). There was a significant group difference in aging of left amygdala; controls, but not individuals with Asperger syndrome, had a significant age-related increase in volume (r = 0.486, P<0.01, and r = 0.007, P = 0.97, z = 1.995). There were no significant group differences in volume or age-related effects in hippocampus. Individuals with Asperger syndrome have significant differences from controls in bulk volume and aging of the amygdala.

Increased hippocampal volumes in adults with high functioning autism spectrum disorder and an IQ>100: A manual morphometric study

“…Some studies report smaller volumes of the amygdala in ASD patients (Aylward et al, 1999;Pierce et al, 2001;Cauda et al, 2011;Via et al, 2011), while others report no significant differences (Haznedar et al, 2000;Duerden et al, 2012;Haar et al, 2015) or larger volumes in comparison to healthy controls (HC) (Howard et al, 2000;Sparks et al, 2002;Murphy et al, 2012). Also, there is some evidence for an age-dependent effect on amygdala volume in ASD (Murphy et al, 2012).…”

Correlation between Morphologic Changes and Autism Spectrum Tendency in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…Murphy's team reported a significantly larger volume of the amygdala in patients with ASD, 28 and Dichter's group demonstrated hyperactivation in the bilateral amygdala during face anticipation that predicted social symptom severity. 29 Those findings with ours indicate that ASD is related to altered structure or function of the amygdala, which could contribute to the severe depressive or pervasive anxiety shown by patients with OCD with ASD traits.…”

Características Neuroanatómicas del Síndrome de Asperger

“…Estos resultados se correlacionaron positivamente con lo observado por Schumann et al (2004), quienes no encontraron diferencias significativas en el volumen de la amígdala entre adolescentes (12,75-18,5 años) con TA, SA y controles. Recientemente, Murphy et al (2012) a través de imáge-nes de resonancia magnética estructural, realizaron comparaciones del volumen de la amígdala de 32 individuos con SA (12-47 años) y 32 controles sanos, quienes no difirieron significativamente en la edad o el coeficiente intelectual. Los hallazgos encontrados apoyaron informes previos de la ampliación de amígdala en niños pequeños con TEA Schumann et al, 2004Schumann et al, , 2009Mosconi et al); sin embargo, encontraron que en varones adolescentes y adultos con SA, la amígdala sigue siendo significativamente mayor, en comparación con los controles de la misma edad.…”

“…Investigaciones posteriores señalaron resultados similares en adolescentes y adultos con este síndrome (O'Brien et al, 2010;Murphy et al, 2012). Sin embargo, Toal et al (2010) y Yu et al observaron reducción de la sustancia gris en hipocampos de individuos adultos con SA en comparación con los controles.…”