Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1366, USA.
J Neurosci. 2012 Apr 4;32(14):4856-60. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6214-11.2012.
In humans, behaviors associated with autism and antisociality, disorders characterized by distinct social impairments, can be viewed as quantitative traits that range from frank impairment to normal variation, as found in the general population. Neuroimaging investigations of autism and antisociality demonstrate diagnostically specific aberrant cortical brain structure. However, little is known about structural brain correlates of social behavior in nonclinical populations. Therefore, we sought to determine whether autistic and antisocial traits exhibit dissociable cortical correlates and whether these associations are stable across development among typically developing youth. Three hundred twenty-three typically developing youth (age at first scan: mean = 10.63, SD = 3.71 years) underwent anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (1-6 scans each; total = 742 scans), and provided ratings of autistic and antisocial traits. Higher autistic trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex most prominently in right superior temporal sulcus while higher antisocial trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex in primarily bilateral anterior prefrontal cortices. There was no interaction with age, indicating that these brain-behavior associations were stable across development. Using assessments of both subclinical autistic and subclinical antisocial traits within a large longitudinal sample of typically developing youth, we demonstrate dissociable neuroanatomic correlations that parallel those found in the frank clinical disorders of autism (e.g., superior temporal cortex) and antisociality (e.g., anterior prefrontal cortex). Moreover, these correlations appear to be established in early childhood and remain fixed into early adulthood. These results support the dimensional view of psychopathology and provide neural signatures that can serve as informative endophenotypes for future genetic studies.
在人类中，与自闭症和反社会行为相关的行为可被视为数量性状，其范围从明显的损伤到正常变异，就像在普通人群中发现的那样。自闭症和反社会行为的神经影像学研究表明，皮质脑结构存在诊断特异性异常。然而，对于非临床人群的社交行为的结构脑相关性知之甚少。因此，我们试图确定自闭症和反社会特征是否表现出可分离的皮质相关性，以及这些相关性在典型发育青少年中是否在整个发育过程中保持稳定。323 名典型发育的青少年（首次扫描时的年龄：平均值=10.63，标准差=3.71 岁）接受了结构磁共振成像（每次扫描 1-6 次；总共 742 次扫描），并对自闭症和反社会特征进行了评分。较高的自闭症特征评分与右侧颞上回的皮质变薄呈正相关，而较高的反社会特征评分与双侧前前额皮质的皮质变薄呈正相关。与年龄没有相互作用，表明这些大脑-行为相关性在整个发育过程中是稳定的。使用大量典型发育青少年的亚临床自闭症和亚临床反社会特征评估，我们在平行于自闭症（例如颞上回）和反社会行为（例如前前额皮质）的典型临床疾病中，展示了可分离的神经解剖相关性。此外，这些相关性似乎在幼儿期建立，并持续到成年早期。这些结果支持精神病理学的维度观点，并提供了可以作为未来遗传研究信息性内表型的神经特征。
