Language Skill Differences Further Distinguish Social Sub-types in Children with Autism

Zhao, Weihua; Li, Qin; Zhang, Xiaolu; Song, Xinwei; Zhu, Siyu; Shou, Xiao-Jing; Meng, Fanchao; Xu, Xinjie; Kendrick, Keith M.

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05759-w

Cited by 3 publications

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Corpus callosum organization and its implication to core and co-occurring symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Minnigulova¹,

Davydova

Pereverzeva

et al. 2023

Brain Struct Funct

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by social interaction and communication de cits, repetitive behavior and often by co-occurring conditions such as language and non-verbal IQ development delays. Previous studies reported that those behavioral abnormalities can be associated with corpus callosum organization. However, little is known about the speci c differences in white matter structure of the corpus callosum parts in children with ASD and TD peers and their relationships to core and comorbid symptoms of ASD. The aim of the study was to investigate the volumetric and microstructural characteristics of the corpus callosum parts crucially involved in social, language, and non-verbal IQ behavior in primary-school-aged children with ASD and to assess the relationships between these characteristics and behavioral measures.Method: 38 children (19 with ASD, 19 typically developing (TD)) were scanned using diffusion-weighted MRI and behaviorally assessed. The tractography of the corpus callosum parts were performed using Quantitative Imaging Toolkit software; diffusivity and volumetric measurements were extracted and analyzed.Results: In the ASD group, fractional anisotropy (FA) was decreased across the supplementary motor area and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, axial diffusivity (AD) was reduced across each of the corpus callosum parts in comparison to the TD group. Importantly, the AD decrease was related to worse language abilities and more severe autistic traits in individuals with ASD.Conclusions: The microstructure of the corpus callosum parts differs between children with and without ASD. Abnormalities in white matter organization of the corpus callosum parts are associated with core and comorbid symptoms of ASD.

show abstract

Corpus callosum organization and its implication to core and co-occurring symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Minnigulova¹,

Davydova

Pereverzeva

et al. 2023

Brain Struct Funct

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

A clustering approach identifies an Autism Spectrum Disorder subtype more responsive to chronic oxytocin treatment

Zhao,

Le,

Liu

et al. 2024

Transl Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last decade, a number of clinical trials have reported effects of chronic treatment with intranasal oxytocin on autistic symptoms but with inconsistent findings. Autism is a heterogeneous disorder and one factor which may influence treatment outcome is whether a subtype of individuals is more sensitive to oxytocin. In a recent cross-over trial on 41 young autistic children we reported that 44% showed a reliable improvement in clinical symptoms (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ADOS-2) after a placebo-controlled, 6-week intranasal oxytocin intervention where treatment was given every other day followed by a period of positive social interaction. In the current re-assessment of the data, we used an unsupervised data-driven cluster analysis approach to identify autism subtypes using 23 different demographic, social subtype, endocrine, eye-tracking and clinical symptom measures taken before treatment and this revealed an optimum of two different subtypes. We then assessed the proportion of identified responders to oxytocin and found that while 61.5% of one subtype included responders only 13.3% of the other did so. During the placebo phase there was no difference between the two subtypes for the small proportion of responders (19.2% vs 6.7%). This oxytocin-sensitive subtype also showed overall significant post-treatment clinical and eye-tracking measure changes. The oxytocin-sensitive subtype was primarily characterized at baseline by lower initial clinical severity (ADOS-2) and greater interest in the eye-region of emotional faces. These features alone were nearly as efficient in identifying the two subtypes as all 23 baseline measures and this easy-to-conduct approach may help rapidly and objectively screen for oxytocin responders. Future clinical trials using oxytocin interventions may therefore achieve greater success by focusing on children with this specific autism subtype and help develop individualized oxytocin intervention.

show abstract

A clustering approach identifies an Autism Spectrum Disorder subtype more responsive to chronic oxytocin treatment

Kendrick,

Zhao,

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last decade, a number of clinical trials have reported effects of chronic treatment with intranasal oxytocin on autistic symptoms but with inconsistent findings. Autism is a heterogeneous disorder and one factor which may influence treatment outcome is whether a subtype of individuals is more sensitive to oxytocin. In a recent cross-over trial on 41 young autistic children we reported that 44% showed a reliable improvement in clinical symptoms (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ADOS-2) after a 6-week intervention. In the current re-assessment of the data, we used an unsupervised data-driven cluster analysis approach to identify autism subtypes using 23 different demographic, social subtype, endocrine,eye-tracking and clinical symptom measures taken before treatment and this revealed an optimum of two different subtypes. We then assessed the proportion of identified responders to oxytocin and found that while 61.5% of one subtype included responders only 13.3% of the other did so. This oxytocin-sensitive subtype also showed overall significant post-treatment clinical and eye-tracking measure changes. The oxytocin-sensitive subtype was primarily characterized at baseline by lower initial clinical severity (ADOS-2) and greater interest in the eye-region of emotional faces. These features alone were nearly as efficient in identifying the two subtypes as all 23 baseline measures and this easy-to-conduct approach may help rapidly and objectively screen for oxytocin responders. Future clinical trials using oxytocin interventions may therefore achieve greater success by focusing on children with this specific autism subtype and help develop individualized oxytocin intervention.

show abstract

Language Skill Differences Further Distinguish Social Sub-types in Children with Autism

Cited by 3 publications

References 56 publications

Corpus callosum organization and its implication to core and co-occurring symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Corpus callosum organization and its implication to core and co-occurring symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder

A clustering approach identifies an Autism Spectrum Disorder subtype more responsive to chronic oxytocin treatment

A clustering approach identifies an Autism Spectrum Disorder subtype more responsive to chronic oxytocin treatment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About