自闭症的神经解剖学

Neuroanatomy of autism.

作者信息

Amaral David G, Schumann Cynthia Mills, Nordahl Christine Wu

机构信息

The M.I.N.D. Institute, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, 2825 50th Street, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.

出版信息

Trends Neurosci. 2008 Mar;31(3):137-45. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2007.12.005. Epub 2008 Feb 6.

DOI:10.1016/j.tins.2007.12.005

PMID:18258309

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder is a heterogeneous, behaviorally defined, neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs in 1 in 150 children. Individuals with autism have deficits in social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication and have restricted or stereotyped patterns of behavior. They might also have co-morbid disorders including intellectual impairment, seizures and anxiety. Postmortem and structural magnetic resonance imaging studies have highlighted the frontal lobes, amygdala and cerebellum as pathological in autism. However, there is no clear and consistent pathology that has emerged for autism. Moreover, recent studies emphasize that the time course of brain development rather than the final product is most disturbed in autism. We suggest that the heterogeneity of both the core and co-morbid features predicts a heterogeneous pattern of neuropathology in autism. Defined phenotypes in larger samples of children and well-characterized brain tissue will be necessary for clarification of the neuroanatomy of autism.

摘要

自闭症谱系障碍是一种异质性的、行为学定义的神经发育障碍，每150名儿童中就有1人患病。自闭症患者在社交互动以及言语和非言语沟通方面存在缺陷，并且具有受限或刻板的行为模式。他们还可能患有共病，包括智力障碍、癫痫和焦虑症。尸检和结构磁共振成像研究已突显出自闭症患者的额叶、杏仁核和小脑存在病变。然而，目前尚未出现明确且一致的自闭症病理学特征。此外，最近的研究强调，在自闭症中，大脑发育的时间进程而非最终产物受到的干扰最大。我们认为，核心特征和共病特征的异质性预示着自闭症患者存在异质性的神经病理学模式。为了阐明自闭症的神经解剖结构，有必要在更大样本的儿童中定义表型，并对脑组织进行充分表征。