Increased frontal cortical folding in autism: a preliminary MRI study

Hardan, Antonio Y.; Jou, Roger J.; Keshavan, Matcheri S.; Varma, Ravi Prasad; Minshew, Nancy J.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2004.06.001

Cited by 170 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…172,[182][183][184] Abnormalities in sulcal and gyral anatomy have been found by using surface-mapping techniques. 185,186 The regional gray-and white-matter volume differences also seem to be age related, although larger cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the meaning of these findings.…”

Section: Postnatal Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Johnson

Myers²

2007

Pediatrics

1,677

1,038

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Autism spectrum disorders are not rare; many primary care pediatricians care for several children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatricians play an important role in early recognition of autism spectrum disorders, because they usually are the first point of contact for parents. Parents are now much more aware of the early signs of autism spectrum disorders because of frequent coverage in the media; if their child demonstrates any of the published signs, they will most likely raise their concerns to their child's pediatrician. It is important that pediatricians be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorders and have a strategy for assessing them systematically. Pediatricians also must be aware of local resources that can assist in making a definitive diagnosis of, and in managing, autism spectrum disorders. The pediatrician must be familiar with developmental, educational, and community resources as well as medical subspecialty clinics. This clinical report is 1 of 2 documents that replace the original American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement and technical report published in 2001. This report addresses background information, including definition, history, epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, early signs, neuropathologic aspects, and etiologic possibilities in autism spectrum disorders. In addition, this report provides an algorithm to help the pediatrician develop a strategy for early identification of children with autism spectrum disorders. The accompanying clinical report addresses the management of children with autism spectrum disorders and follows this report on page 1162 [available at www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/120/5/1162]. Both clinical reports are complemented by the toolkit titled “Autism: Caring for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Resource Toolkit for Clinicians,” which contains screening and surveillance tools, practical forms, tables, and parent handouts to assist the pediatrician in the identification, evaluation, and management of autism spectrum disorders in children.

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Section: Postnatal Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Johnson

Myers²

2007

Pediatrics

1,677

1,038

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“…Relative to a group of age-and IQ-matched controls, indi-viduals with autism were reported to have a significantly higher incidence of cortical abnormalities such as polymicrogyria, schizencephaly, and macrogyria. In a preliminary study, Hardan et al (2004) reported that children and adolescents with autism had a higher left frontal gyrification index than controls, but that adults did not. Levitt et al (2003), using manually traced threedimensional (3-D) sulcal trajectories, reported an anterior and superior shift in the Sylvian fissure, superior temporal sulcus, and inferior frontal sulcus in children with high-functioning autism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Abnormalities in cortical folding may arise from altered patterns of connectivity (Van Essen, 1997) and would be consistent with existing evidence of increased white matter (Herbert et al, 2003(Herbert et al, , 2004 and aberrant white matter structure (Barnea-Goraly et al, 2004;Hendry et al, 2005) in autism. Three studies of cortical shape characteristics in autism, each using a different approach, report abnormalities in the cortical surface (Piven et al, 1990;Levitt et al, 2003;Hardan et al, 2004). Piven et al (1990) examined cortical shape characteristics in a group of adults with high-functioning autism by qualitatively rating high-resolution MRI scans for various cortical malformations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortical Folding Abnormalities in Autism Revealed by Surface-Based Morphometry

Nordahl¹,

Dierker²,

Mostafavi³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

258

201

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We tested for cortical shape abnormalities using surface-based morphometry across a range of autism spectrum disorders (7.5-18 years of age). We generated sulcal depth maps from structural magnetic resonance imaging data and compared typically developing controls to three autism spectrum disorder subgroups: low-functioning autism, high-functioning autism, and Asperger's syndrome. The lowfunctioning autism group had a prominent shape abnormality centered on the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus that was associated with a sulcal depth difference in the anterior insula and frontal operculum. The high-functioning autism group had bilateral shape abnormalities similar to the low-functioning group, but smaller in size and centered more posteriorly, in and near the parietal operculum and ventral postcentral gyrus. Individuals with Asperger's syndrome had bilateral abnormalities in the intraparietal sulcus that correlated with age, intelligence quotient, and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised social and repetitive behavior scores. Because of evidence suggesting age-related differences in the developmental time course of neural alterations in autism, separate analyses on children (7.5-12.5 years of age) and adolescents (12.75-18 years of age) were also carried out. All of the cortical shape abnormalities identified across all ages were more pronounced in the children. These findings are consistent with evidence of an altered trajectory of early brain development in autism, and they identify several regions that may have abnormal patterns of connectivity in individuals with autism.

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“…The computational results in this experiment demonstrate that overgrowth of the cortex will increase the cortical folding and convolution. This simulation result might provide theoretical clues to the following two independent studies: 1) In a MRI study of Autism, it was reported that the left frontal cortical folding is significantly increased in autism patient, but there is also a significant decrease in the frontal folding patterns with age in the autistic group [13]; and 2) It was reported that in Autism, the brain overgrows at the beginning of life and slows or arrests growth during early childhood [14]. In the future, it would be very interesting to combine our folding simulation studies with longitudinal MRI studies of Autistic brains and normal controls to further elucidate the relationship between brain growth and cortical folding in both Autism and normal neurodevelopment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 72%

A Computational Model of Cerebral Cortex Folding

Nie

Liu

2009

Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2009

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Abstract. Folding of the human cerebral cortex has intrigued many people for many years. Quantitative description of cortical folding pattern and understanding of the underlying mechanisms have emerged as an important research goal. This paper presents a computational 3D geometric model of cerebral cortex folding that is initialized by MRI data of human fetus brain and deformed under the governance of partial differential equations modeling the cortical growth. The simulations of this 3D geometric model provide computational experiment support to the following hypotheses: 1) Mechanical constraints of the brain skull regulate the cortical folding process. 2) The cortical folding pattern is dependent on the global cell growth rate in the whole cortex.3) The cortical folding pattern is dependent on relative degrees of tethering of different cortical areas and the initial geometry.

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Increased frontal cortical folding in autism: a preliminary MRI study

Cited by 170 publications

References 15 publications

Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cortical Folding Abnormalities in Autism Revealed by Surface-Based Morphometry

A Computational Model of Cerebral Cortex Folding

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