Goldman Sylvie, O'Brien Liam M, Filipek Pauline A, Rapin Isabelle, Herbert Martha R
Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, United States ; Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, United States ; Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, United States.
Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2013 Jan 1;7(1):82-92. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2012.07.005.
Motor stereotypies are defined as patterned, repetitive, purposeless movements. These stigmatizing motor behaviors represent one manifestation of the third core criterion for an Autistic Disorder (AD) diagnosis, and are becoming viewed as potential early markers of autism. Moreover, motor stereotypies might be a tangible expression of the underlying neurobiology of this neurodevelopmental disorder. In this study, we videoscored stereotypies recorded during semi-structured play sessions from school age children with AD. We examined the effect of severity and persistence over time of stereotypies on brain volumetric changes. Our findings confirmed that the brain volume of school age children with AD is, on average, larger than that of age-matched typically developing children. However, we have failed to detect any sign of volumetric differences in brain regions thought to be particularly linked to the pathophysiology of stereotypies. This negative finding may suggest that, at least with respect to motor stereotypies, functional rather than structural alterations might be the underpinning of these disruptive motor manifestations of autism.
运动刻板行为被定义为有模式的、重复的、无目的的动作。这些具有污名化的运动行为是自闭症谱系障碍（AD）诊断的第三个核心标准的一种表现形式，并且正被视为自闭症潜在的早期标志物。此外，运动刻板行为可能是这种神经发育障碍潜在神经生物学的一种具体表现。在本研究中，我们对患有AD的学龄儿童在半结构化游戏环节中记录的刻板行为进行了视频评分。我们研究了刻板行为的严重程度和随时间的持续性对脑容量变化的影响。我们的研究结果证实，患有AD的学龄儿童的脑容量平均大于年龄匹配的正常发育儿童。然而，我们未能检测到在被认为与刻板行为的病理生理学特别相关的脑区存在任何容量差异的迹象。这一阴性结果可能表明，至少就运动刻板行为而言，功能而非结构改变可能是自闭症这些干扰性运动表现的基础。
