Watanabe Takamitsu, Rees Geraint
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom.
Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2016 Aug 3;6:31114. doi: 10.1038/srep31114.
Influential psychological models of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have proposed that this prevalent developmental disorder results from impairment of global (integrative) information processing and overload of local (sensory) information. However, little neuroanatomical evidence consistent with this account has been reported. Here, we examined relative grey matter volumes (rGMVs) between three cortical networks, how they changed with age, and their relationship with core symptomatology. Using public neuroimaging data of high-functioning ASD males and age-/sex-/IQ-matched controls, we first identified age-associated atypical increases in rGMVs of the regions of two sensory systems (auditory and visual networks), and an age-related aberrant decrease in rGMV of a task-control system (fronto-parietal network, FPN) in ASD children. While the enlarged rGMV of the auditory network in ASD adults was associated with the severity of autistic socio-communicational core symptom, that of the visual network was instead correlated with the severity of restricted and repetitive behaviours in ASD. Notably, the atypically decreased rGMV of FPN predicted both of the two core symptoms. These findings suggest that disproportionate undergrowth of a task-control system (FPN) may be a common anatomical basis for the two ASD core symptoms, and relative overgrowth of the two different sensory systems selectively compounds the distinct symptoms.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的一些有影响力的心理学模型提出，这种常见的发育障碍是由整体（整合）信息处理受损和局部（感觉）信息过载导致的。然而，很少有与这一观点相符的神经解剖学证据被报道。在此，我们研究了三个皮质网络之间的相对灰质体积（rGMV）、它们如何随年龄变化以及它们与核心症状学的关系。利用高功能ASD男性以及年龄、性别、智商匹配的对照组的公开神经影像数据，我们首先发现，在ASD儿童中，两个感觉系统（听觉和视觉网络）区域的rGMV存在与年龄相关的非典型增加，以及一个任务控制系统（额顶网络，FPN）的rGMV出现与年龄相关的异常减少。在ASD成人中，听觉网络增大的rGMV与自闭症社会沟通核心症状的严重程度相关，而视觉网络的rGMV则与ASD中受限和重复行为的严重程度相关。值得注意的是，FPN非典型减少的rGMV可预测这两种核心症状。这些发现表明，一个任务控制系统（FPN）的发育不均衡可能是这两种ASD核心症状的共同解剖学基础，而两种不同感觉系统的相对过度生长则分别加剧了各自不同的症状。
