Brain morphometry in autistic men as measured by volumetric computed tomography.

Brains of 12 physically healthy men, aged 18 to 39 years, with clear childhood diagnoses of infantile autism, and those of 16 healthy age- and sex-matched normal controls, were examined with computed transverse axial tomography. No significant group differences were seen in volumes of cerebrospinal fluid, white matter, gray matter, the third ventricle, the lateral ventricles, the caudate nuclei, lenticular nuclei, or the thalami, or in the relative symmetry of these structures. These results suggest that the cerebral defect in autism is functional or microscopic, without major gross anatomic correlate.