Focquaert Farah, Vanneste Sven
Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Bioethics Institute Ghent, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
Lab for Clinical and Integrative Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Callier Center for Communication Disorders, The University of Texas at Dallas Dallas, TX, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2015 May 12;9:264. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00264. eCollection 2015.
In light of the new DSM-5 autism spectrum disorders diagnosis in which the autism spectrum reflects a group of neurodevelopmental disorders existing on a continuum from mild to severe expression of autistic traits, and recent empirical findings showing a continuous distribution of autistic traits in the general population, our voxel based morphometry study compares normal individuals with high autistic traits to normal individuals with low autistic traits. We hypothesize that normal individuals with high autistic traits in terms of empathizing and systemizing [high systemizing (HS)/low empathizing (LE)] share brain irregularities with individuals that fall within the clinical autism spectrum disorder. We find differences in several social brain network areas between our groups. Specifically, we find increased gray matter (GM) volume in the orbitofrontal cortex, the cuneus, the hippocampus and parahippocampus and reduced GM volume in the inferior temporal cortex, the insula, and the amygdala in our HS/LE individuals relative to our HE/LS (low autistic traits in terms of empathizing and systemizing) individuals.
鉴于新的《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第五版（DSM-5）中自闭症谱系障碍的诊断，其中自闭症谱系反映了一组神经发育障碍，这些障碍存在于从轻度到重度自闭症特征表达的连续体上，并且最近的实证研究结果表明自闭症特征在普通人群中呈连续分布，我们基于体素的形态学研究将具有高自闭症特征的正常个体与具有低自闭症特征的正常个体进行了比较。我们假设，在共情和系统化方面具有高自闭症特征的正常个体[高系统化（HS）/低共情（LE）]与临床自闭症谱系障碍范围内的个体存在大脑异常。我们发现两组之间在几个社会脑网络区域存在差异。具体而言，相对于我们的高共情/低系统化（HE/LS，在共情和系统化方面具有低自闭症特征）个体，我们的HS/LE个体在眶额皮质、楔叶、海马体和海马旁回中灰质（GM）体积增加，而在颞下回、脑岛和杏仁核中GM体积减少。
