Division of Bioengineering and Clinical Imaging Research Center, National University of Singapore and Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;49(6):539-51, 551.e1-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2010.02.012.
Basal ganglia abnormalities have been suggested as contributing to motor, social, and communicative impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Volumetric analyses offer limited ability to detect localized differences in basal ganglia structure. Our objective was to investigate basal ganglia shape abnormalities and their association with behavioral features of ASD, which may involve multiple frontal-subcortical circuits.
Basal ganglia were manually delineated from MR images of 32 boys with ASD and 45 typically developing (TD) boys. Large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) was used to assess between-group differences in basal ganglia shape and to examine associations with motor, praxis, and reciprocal social and communicative impairments in ASD.
Boys with ASD showed changes in right basal ganglia shape as compared with TD boys; surface deformation was present in the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus but did not stand up to correction for multiple comparisons. Brain-behavior correlation findings were more robust; analyses accounting for multiple comparisons revealed, in boys with ASD, surface inward deformation of the right posterior putamen predicted poorer motor skill, whereas surface inward deformation of the bilateral anterior and posterior putamen predicted poorer praxis. Surface outward deformation in the bilateral medial caudate head predicted greater reciprocal social and communicative impairment.
Motor, social, and communicative impairments in boys with ASD are associated with shape abnormalities in the basal ganglia. The findings suggest abnormalities within parallel frontal-subcortical circuits are differentially associated with impaired acquisition of motor and reciprocal social and communicative skills in ASD.
基底节异常被认为是导致自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）运动、社交和沟通障碍的原因之一。体积分析在检测基底节结构的局部差异方面能力有限。我们的目的是研究基底节形状异常及其与 ASD 的行为特征的关联，这些特征可能涉及多个额皮质下回路。
我们从 32 名 ASD 男孩和 45 名典型发育（TD）男孩的 MRI 图像中手动描绘了基底节。我们使用大变形差分形态测量映射（LDDMM）来评估基底节形状的组间差异，并研究 ASD 中运动、动作、互惠性社交和沟通障碍与基底节形状的关联。
与 TD 男孩相比，ASD 男孩的右侧基底节形状发生了变化；在尾状核、壳核和苍白球中存在表面变形，但在经过多次比较校正后，这种变形并没有显著差异。脑-行为相关性分析结果更为稳健；对多个比较进行校正的分析表明，在 ASD 男孩中，右侧壳核后部的表面向内变形预测运动技能较差，而双侧壳核前部和后部的表面向内变形预测动作较差。双侧内囊头部的表面向外变形预测互惠性社交和沟通障碍程度更严重。
ASD 男孩的运动、社交和沟通障碍与基底节的形状异常有关。这些发现表明，平行额皮质下回路内的异常与 ASD 中运动和互惠性社交和沟通技能的习得障碍有不同的关联。
