Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Center for Optoelectronic Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Autism Res. 2013 Dec;6(6):561-70. doi: 10.1002/aur.1315. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
Deficits in language and communication are among the core symptoms of autism, a common neurodevelopmental disorder with long-term impairment. Despite the striking nature of the autistic language impairment, knowledge about its corresponding alterations in the brain is still evolving. We hypothesized that the dual stream language network is altered in autism, and that this alteration could be revealed by changes in the relationships between microstructural integrity and functional activation. The study recruited 20 right-handed male youths with autism and 20 carefully matched individually, typically developing (TD) youths. Microstructural integrity of the left dorsal and left ventral pathways responsible for language processing and the functional activation of the connected brain regions were investigated by using diffusion spectrum imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging of a semantic task, respectively. Youths with autism had significantly poorer language function, and lower functional activation in left dorsal and left ventral regions of the language network, compared with TD youths. The TD group showed a significant correlation of the functional activation of the left dorsal region with microstructural integrity of the left ventral pathway, whereas the autism group showed a significant correlation of the functional activation of the left ventral region with microstructural integrity of the left dorsal pathway, and moreover verbal comprehension index was correlated with microstructural integrity of the left ventral pathway. These altered structure-function relationships in autism suggest possible involvement of the dual pathways in supporting deficient semantic processing.
语言和交流缺陷是自闭症的核心症状之一，自闭症是一种常见的神经发育障碍，会造成长期的损伤。尽管自闭症患者的语言损伤非常明显，但我们对其大脑相应变化的了解仍在不断发展。我们假设，自闭症患者的双语言网络发生了改变，这种改变可以通过脑区微观结构完整性和功能激活之间关系的变化来揭示。本研究招募了 20 名右利手的自闭症男性青少年和 20 名精心匹配的、具有典型发育的（TD）青少年。通过使用扩散张量成像和语义任务的功能磁共振成像，分别研究了负责语言处理的左侧背侧和左侧腹侧通路的微观结构完整性以及连接脑区的功能激活情况。与 TD 青少年相比，自闭症青少年的语言功能明显较差，语言网络的左侧背侧和左侧腹侧区域的功能激活也较低。TD 组中左侧背侧区域的功能激活与左侧腹侧通路的微观结构完整性呈显著相关性，而自闭症组中左侧腹侧区域的功能激活与左侧背侧通路的微观结构完整性呈显著相关性，此外，言语理解指数与左侧腹侧通路的微观结构完整性呈相关性。自闭症中这些改变的结构-功能关系表明，双通路可能参与了支持语义处理缺陷的过程。
