Gaffney G R, Kuperman S, Tsai L Y, Minchin S
Department of Psychiatry, University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City.
Biol Psychiatry. 1988 Sep;24(5):578-86. doi: 10.1016/0006-3223(88)90168-0.
Previous neurophysiological and neuroanatomic studies suggest brainstem dysfunction in infantile autism. Therefore, we investigated the brainstem structure of autistic patients by planimetric analysis of midsagittal magnetic resonance imaging scans. We found the entire brainstem and one component--the pons--to be statistically significantly smaller in the autistic group when compared with medical controls. We also noted no correlation between brainstem size and age in the autistic group--a correlation that was found in the control group. These data present morphological evidence of brainstem involvement in the infantile autism syndrome.
以往的神经生理学和神经解剖学研究表明，婴儿自闭症存在脑干功能障碍。因此，我们通过对矢状面磁共振成像扫描进行平面测量分析，对自闭症患者的脑干结构进行了研究。我们发现，与医学对照组相比，自闭症组的整个脑干以及其中一个组成部分——脑桥——在统计学上显著更小。我们还注意到，自闭症组中脑干大小与年龄之间不存在相关性，而在对照组中发现了这种相关性。这些数据为脑干参与婴儿自闭症综合征提供了形态学证据。
