Kirkovski Melissa, Fuelscher Ian, Hyde Christian, Donaldson Peter H, Ford Talitha C, Rossell Susan L, Fitzgerald Paul B, Enticott Peter G
Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Integr Neurosci. 2020 Aug 13;14:40. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2020.00040. eCollection 2020.
Atypical white matter (WM) microstructure is commonly implicated in the neuropathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fixel based analysis (FBA), at the cutting-edge of diffusion-weighted imaging, can account for crossing WM fibers and can provide indices of both WM micro- and macrostructure. We applied FBA to investigate WM structure between 25 (12 males, 13 females) adults with ASD and 24 (12 males, 12 females) matched controls. As the role of biological sex on the neuropathophysiology of ASD is of increasing interest, this was also explored. There were no significant differences in WM micro- or macrostructure between adults with ASD and matched healthy controls. When data were stratified by sex, females with ASD had reduced fiber density and cross-section (FDC), a combined metric comprised of micro- and macrostructural measures, in the corpus callosum, a finding not detected between the male sub-groups. We conclude that micro- and macrostructural WM aberrations are present in ASD, and may be influenced by biological sex.
非典型白质（WM）微观结构通常与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的神经病理生理学有关。基于体素的分析（FBA）处于扩散加权成像的前沿，能够解释交叉的WM纤维，并能提供WM微观和宏观结构的指标。我们应用FBA来研究25名（12名男性，13名女性）成年ASD患者和24名（12名男性，12名女性）匹配对照者之间的WM结构。由于生物性别在ASD神经病理生理学中的作用越来越受到关注，因此也对其进行了探究。成年ASD患者与匹配的健康对照者之间的WM微观或宏观结构没有显著差异。当按性别对数据进行分层时，患有ASD的女性胼胝体中的纤维密度和横截面积（FDC，一种由微观和宏观结构测量组成的综合指标）降低，而在男性亚组之间未发现这一现象。我们得出结论，ASD中存在微观和宏观结构的WM异常，并且可能受到生物性别的影响。
