Basal Ganglia Shapes Predict Social, Communication, and Motor Dysfunctions in Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder

What can autism teach us about the role of sensorimotor systems in higher cognition? New clues from studies on language, action semantics, and abstract emotional concept processing

“…Specific examination of the structural integrity of basal ganglia and their relationship to motor performance in grip strength, finger tapping and pegboard performance failed to reveal a correlation or abnormalities in a large group of autistic individuals between 8 and 45 years of age (Hardan et al, 2003). The lack of difference or relationship in this study might potentially reflect the within-group brain development in such a wideranging sample: structural differences of the basal ganglia were associated with poorer motor skills and praxis in autistic children (Qiu, Adler, Crocetti, Miller, & Mostofsky, 2010). Motor planning deficits were also theoretically linked to deficits in the ability of anterior cingulate to regulate attention for actions and to impaired communication between cingulate and supplementary motor cortex to the difficulty initiating motor programmes (Rinehart et al, 2001).…”

Morphology and microstructure of subcortical structures at birth: A large-scale Asian neonatal neuroimaging study

“…However, sexual dimorphism in the deep gray matter becomes pronounced in children, adolescents, and adults. Sowell et al (2002) and Giedd et al (1997) described that females actually had larger volumes in the caudate and thalamus than the males in childhood and adulthood, which is intriguing given the involvement of the basal ganglia and thalamus in disorders with pronounced sex differences in incidence such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, Tourette's syndrome, and schizophrenia (Castle et al, 1998;Ivanov et al, 2010;Miller et al, 2010;Qiu et al, 2009Qiu et al, , 2010. Interestingly, regional gray matter volumes followed an inverted-U shaped maturational curve and peaked earlier in females.…”

Do Planning and Visual Integration Difficulties Underpin Motor Dysfunction in Autism? A Kinematic Study of Young Children with Autism

“…Children with autism were matched as closely as possible to a group of 13 typically developing (TD) children on age, gender and performance IQ (PIQ). The decision to match participants based on PIQ rather than Full Scale IQ was made in line with the reasoning of Qiu et al (2010). PIQ was assessed using the age appropriate Wechsler scale (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-4th Edition or Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-3rd Edition; Wechsler 2002Wechsler , 2004.…”