Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2011 Jul;41(7):837-47. doi: 10.1007/s10803-010-1101-0.
Key theories of autism implicate orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) compromise, while olfactory identification (OI) deficits are associated with OFC dysfunction. This study aimed to complete a 5-year follow-up of children with high-functioning autism (HFA) who previously lacked the normal age-OI association; and compare unirhinal-OI in children with HFA, Asperger's disorder (ASP), and controls. While both HFA and controls had improved birhinal-OI at follow-up, reduced OI in some HFA participants suggested OFC deterioration and heterogeneous OFC development. Unirhinal-OI was impaired in HFA but not ASP relative to controls, suggesting orbitofrontal compromise in HFA but integrity in ASP. Differing IQ-OI relationships existed between HFA and ASP. Findings support the hypothesis of separate neurobiological underpinnings in ASP and HFA, specifically differential orbitofrontal functioning.
自闭症的关键理论暗示眶额皮层（OFC）受损，而嗅觉识别（OI）缺陷与 OFC 功能障碍有关。本研究旨在对先前缺乏正常年龄-OI 关联的高功能自闭症（HFA）儿童进行 5 年随访；并比较 HFA、阿斯伯格综合征（ASP）和对照组儿童的单侧嗅觉识别。虽然 HFA 和对照组在随访时双侧嗅觉识别都有所改善，但一些 HFA 参与者嗅觉识别的降低表明 OFC 恶化和 OFC 发育的异质性。与对照组相比，HFA 患者单侧嗅觉识别受损，但 ASP 患者未受损，提示 HFA 存在眶额叶损伤，而 ASP 则完整。HFA 和 ASP 之间存在不同的 IQ-OI 关系。这些发现支持了在 ASP 和 HFA 中存在不同神经生物学基础的假设，特别是眶额叶功能的不同。
