Reduced Gray Matter Volume in the Social Brain Network in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sato, Wataru; Kochiyama, Takanori; Uono, Shota; Yoshimura, Sayaka; Kubota, Yasutaka; Sawada, Reiko; Sakihama, Morimitsu; Toichi, Motomi

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00395

Cited by 59 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(150 reference statements)

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“…The opposite direction of the alteration of the caudate nucleus in autism has also previously been found (43). This is not the case for the IFG and OFG, which showed lower densities in autism in our study, where prior studies found mixed results (44,45). Importantly, the brain regions identified by our analyses have earlier been implicated in the neurobiology and/or neurocognition of autism.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 55%

“…Importantly, the brain regions identified by our analyses have earlier been implicated in the neurobiology and/or neurocognition of autism. In IC10, structural and/or functional alterations of the insula, IFG, and OFC have been associated with social and non-social cognitive impairments in autism (45)(46)(47)(48). A meta-analysis reported abnormal functional activations of the insula, IFG, and OFG during social cognition tasks in autism (49).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Gray matter covariations and core symptoms of autism. The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project

Mei

Llera

Floris

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundVoxel-based Morphometry (VBM) studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism) have yielded diverging results. This might partly be attributed to structural alterations being associating with the combined influence of several regions rather than with a single region. Further, these structural covariation differences may relate to continuous measures of autism rather than with categorical case-control contrasts. The current study aimed to identify structural covariation alterations in autism, and assessed canonical correlations between brain covariation patterns and core autism symptoms.MethodsWe studied 347 individuals with autism and 252 typically developing individuals, aged between 6 and 30 years, who have been deeply phenotyped in the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP). All participants’ VBM maps were decomposed into spatially independent components using Independent Component Analysis. A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to examine case-control differences. Next, Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) was performed to separately explore the integrated effects between all the brain sources of gray matter variation and two sets of core autism symptoms.ResultsGLM analyses showed significant case-control differences for two independent components. The first component was primarily associated with decreased density of bilateral insula, inferior frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and increased density of caudate nucleus in the autism group relative to typically developing individuals. The second component was related to decreased densities of the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus in the autism group relative to typically developing individuals. The CCA results showed significant correlations between components that involved variation of thalamus, putamen, precentral gyrus, frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, and the cerebellum, and repetitive, rigid and stereotyped behaviors and abnormal sensory behaviors in autism individuals.LimitationsOnly 55.9% of the participants with autism had complete questionnaire data on continuous parent-reported symptom measures.ConclusionsCovaried areas associated with autism diagnosis and/or symptoms are scattered across the whole brain and include the limbic system, basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, precentral gyrus, and parts of the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Some of these areas potentially subserve social-communicative behavior whereas others may underpin sensory processing and integration, and motor behavior.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gray matter covariations and core symptoms of autism. The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project

Mei

Llera

Floris

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…The importance of these two regions was further solidified in another study, identifying both frontal and temporal lobe volumes as most discriminative of ASD (Katuwal et al, 2015). Additionally, reduced GMV was observed in the parietal lobe in 4 studies (Brun et al, 2009; Ecker et al, 2012, 2010b; Ni et al, 2018), and occipital lobe in 4 studies (Brun et al, 2009; Ecker et al, 2012; Ni et al, 2018; Sato et al, 2017). It is unclear if regional white matter volume (WMV) contribute to this overgrowth, with 4 studies reporting regional increases in WMV (Ecker et al, 2010b; Hoeft et al, 2011; Lai et al, 2015; Libero et al, 2016; Xiao et al, 2014), three studies reporting regional decreases in WMV (Hanaie et al, 2016; Lange et al, 2015; Zhou et al, 2014) and a further three studies finding no observable WMV differences (Lin et al, 2015; Ni et al, 2018; Radeloff et al, 2014).…”

Section: Structural Biomarkers Of Asdmentioning

confidence: 96%

A systematic review of structural MRI biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: A machine learning perspective

Pagnozzi

Conti

Calderoni

et al. 2018

Intl J of Devlp Neuroscience

126

101

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1% of the population and leads to impairments in social interaction, communication and restricted, repetitive behaviours. Establishing robust neuroimaging biomarkers of ASD using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important step for diagnosing and tailoring treatment, particularly early in life when interventions can have the greatest effect. However currently, there is mixed findings on the structural brain changes associated with autism. Therefore in this systematic review, recent (post-2007), high-resolution (3 T) MRI studies investigating brain morphology associated with ASD have been collated to identify robust neuroimaging biomarkers of ASD. A systematic search was conducted on three databases; PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus, resulting in 123 reviewed articles. Patients with ASD were observed to have increased whole brain volume, particularly under 6 years of age. Other consistent changes observed in ASD patients include increased volume in the frontal and temporal lobes, increased cortical thickness in the frontal lobe, increased surface area and cortical gyrification, and increased cerebrospinal fluid volume, as well as reduced cerebellum volume and reduced corpus callosum volume, compared to typically developing controls. Findings were inconsistent regarding the developmental trajectory of brain volume and cortical thinning with age in ASD, as well as potential volume differences in the white matter, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus and basal ganglia. To elucidate these inconsistencies, future studies should look towards aggregating MRI data from multiple sites or available repositories to avoid underpowered studies, as well as utilising methods which quantify larger-scale image features to reduce the number of statistical tests performed, and hence risk of false positive findings. Additionally, studies should look to perform a thorough validation strategy, to ensure generalisability of study findings, as well as look to leverage the improved image resolution of 3 T scanning to identify subtle brain changes related to ASD.

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“…The "social brain" network has been suggested to be associated with specific social processing tasks, such as face perception [Haxby, Hoffman, & Gobbini, 2000], emotional processing [Calder, Lawrence, & Young, 2001;Rolls, 2004Rolls, , 2008, motor resonance [Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2001], and theory of mind (ToM, or mentalizing) [Frith & Frith, 2003]. Although the brain regions included in this network are not exactly consistent among different studies, the key regions mainly include the inferior occipital gyrus, posterior fusiform gyrus, middle temporal gyrus (MTG), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), amygdala, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex [Sato et al, 2017;Williams et al, 2006]. Among these regions of the "social brain" network, numerous alterations of pSTS, which were associated with processing socially relevant stimuli and gaze perception, have been observed in the ASD [Georgescu et al, 2013;Nummenmaa, Engell, von dem Hagen, Henson, & Calder, 2012;von dem Hagen et al, 2011;von dem Hagen, Stoyanova, Rowe, Baron-Cohen, & Calder, 2014].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Functional Connectivity Patterns of Middle Temporal Gyrus Subregions in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Wang

et al. 2019

Autism Research

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As one of the key regions in the “social brain” network, the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) has been widely reported to be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but there have been contradictory results in terms of whether it shows hyperconnectivity or hypoconnectivity. Delineating roles of MTG at the subregional level may eliminate the observed inconsistencies and provide a new avenue to reveal the neurophysiologic mechanism of ASD. Thus, we first performed connectivity‐based parcellation using the BrainMap database to identify fine‐grained functional topography of the MTG. Then, the MTG subregions were used to investigate differences in the functional connectivity in children and adults with ASD using two data sets from Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database. Four distinct subregions in the human left and right MTG were identified, including the anterior MTG (aMTG), middle‐anterior MTG (maMTG), middle‐posterior MTG, and posterior MTG (pMTG). The bilateral pMTG was more vulnerable in both children and adults with ASD than in the typically developing (TD) group, mainly showing hypoconnectivity with different brain regions. In addition, the bilateral aMTG and right maMTG also showed altered functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to the TD group. Moreover, all these altered MTG subregions were mainly associated with social cognition and language, as revealed by functional characterization. Further correlation analyses also showed trends of association between altered connectivity of the left aMTG and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores in adults with ASD. Together, these results suggest a potential objective way to explore sub‐regional differences associated with such disorders. Autism Res 2020, 13: 410–422. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary Four distinct subregions in the human left and right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) were identified, including the anterior MTG (aMTG), middle‐anterior MTG (maMTG), middle‐posterior MTG, and posterior MTG (pMTG). The bilateral pMTG was more vulnerable in both children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than in the typically developing (TD) group, mainly showing hypoconnectivity with different brain regions. In addition, the bilateral aMTG and right maMTG also showed altered functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to the TD group. Moreover, all these altered MTG subregions were mainly associated with social cognition and language, as revealed by functional characterization. Further correlation analyses also showed trends of association between altered connectivity of the left aMTG and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores in adults with ASD.

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Reduced Gray Matter Volume in the Social Brain Network in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 59 publications

References 111 publications

Gray matter covariations and core symptoms of autism. The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project

Gray matter covariations and core symptoms of autism. The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project

A systematic review of structural MRI biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: A machine learning perspective

Specific Functional Connectivity Patterns of Middle Temporal Gyrus Subregions in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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