Li Qingqing, Zhao Wei, Palaniyappan Lena, Guo Shuixia
MOE-LCSM, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410006, P. R. China.
Key Laboratory of Applied Statistics and Data Science, College of Hunan Province, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410006, P. R. China.
Psychol Med. 2023 Oct;53(14):6702-6713. doi: 10.1017/S0033291723000181. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
Characteristic changes in the asymmetric nature of the human brain are associated with neurodevelopmental differences related to autism. In people with autism, these differences are thought to affect brain structure and function, although the structural and functional bases of these defects are yet to be fully characterized.
We applied a comprehensive meta-analysis to resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging datasets from 370 people with autism and 498 non-autistic controls using seven datasets of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange Project. We studied the meta-effect sizes based on standardized mean differences and standard deviations (s.d.) for lateralization of gray matter volume (GMV), fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo). We examined the functional correlates of atypical laterality through an indirect annotation approach followed by a direct correlation analysis with symptom scores.
In people with autism, 85, 51, and 51% of brain regions showed a significant diagnostic effect for lateralization in GMV, fALFF, and ReHo, respectively. Among these regions, 35.7% showed overlapping differences in lateralization in GMV, fALFF, and ReHo, particularly in regions with functional annotations for language, motor, and perceptual functions. These differences were associated with clinical measures of reciprocal social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors. A meta-analysis based on s.d. showed that people with autism had lower variability in structural lateralization but higher variability in functional lateralization.
These findings highlight that atypical hemispheric lateralization is a consistent feature in autism across different sites and may be used as a neurobiological marker for autism.
人类大脑不对称性的特征性变化与自闭症相关的神经发育差异有关。在自闭症患者中，这些差异被认为会影响大脑结构和功能，尽管这些缺陷的结构和功能基础尚未完全明确。
我们使用自闭症大脑成像数据交换项目的七个数据集，对来自370名自闭症患者和498名非自闭症对照的静息态功能和结构磁共振成像数据集进行了全面的荟萃分析。我们基于标准化均值差异和标准差（s.d.）研究了灰质体积（GMV）、低频波动分数振幅（fALFF）和局部一致性（ReHo）的偏侧化的荟萃效应大小。我们通过间接注释方法，然后与症状评分进行直接相关性分析，研究了非典型偏侧化的功能相关性。
在自闭症患者中，分别有85%、51%和51%的脑区在GMV、fALFF和ReHo的偏侧化方面显示出显著的诊断效应。在这些区域中，35.7%在GMV、fALFF和ReHo的偏侧化方面显示出重叠差异，特别是在具有语言、运动和感知功能功能注释的区域。这些差异与相互社交互动、沟通和重复行为的临床测量相关。基于标准差的荟萃分析表明，自闭症患者在结构偏侧化方面的变异性较低，但在功能偏侧化方面的变异性较高。
这些发现突出表明，非典型半球偏侧化是自闭症在不同部位一致的特征，可作为自闭症的神经生物学标志物。
