Xin Jing, Huang Kaiyu, Yi Aiwen, Feng Ziyu, Liu Heng, Liu Xiaoqing, Liang Lili, Huang Qingshan, Xiao Yaqiong
Foshan Clinical Medical School, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Foshan, China.
Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2023 May 4;14:1144993. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1144993. eCollection 2023.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder, characterized by language and social deficits that begin to appear in the first years of life. Research in preschool children with ASD has consistently reported increased global brain volume and abnormal cortical patterns, and the brain structure abnormalities have also been found to be clinically and behaviorally relevant. However, little is known regarding the associations between brain structure abnormalities and early language and social deficits in preschool children with ASD.
In this study, we collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from a cohort of Chinese preschool children with and without ASD (24 ASD/20 non-ASD) aged 12-52 months, explored group differences in brain gray matter (GM) volume, and examined associations between regional GM volume and early language and social abilities in these two groups, separately.
We observed significantly greater global GM volume in children with ASD as compared to those without ASD, but there were no regional GM volume differences between these two groups. For children without ASD, GM volume in bilateral prefrontal cortex and cerebellum was significantly correlated with language scores; GM volume in bilateral prefrontal cortex was significantly correlated with social scores. No significant correlations were found in children with ASD.
Our data demonstrate correlations of regional GM volume with early language and social abilities in preschool children without ASD, and the absence of these associations appear to underlie language and social deficits in children with ASD. These findings provide novel evidence for the neuroanatomical basis associated with language and social abilities in preschool children with and without ASD, which promotes a better understanding of early deficits in language and social functions in ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种复杂的发育障碍，其特征是在生命的最初几年开始出现语言和社交缺陷。对患有ASD的学龄前儿童的研究一直报告称其全脑体积增加且皮质模式异常，并且还发现脑结构异常与临床和行为相关。然而，关于患有ASD的学龄前儿童脑结构异常与早期语言和社交缺陷之间的关联，我们知之甚少。
在本研究中，我们收集了一组年龄在12至52个月之间的患有和未患有ASD的中国学龄前儿童（24名患有ASD/20名未患有ASD）的磁共振成像（MRI）数据，探讨了两组脑灰质（GM）体积的组间差异，并分别检查了这两组区域GM体积与早期语言和社交能力之间的关联。
我们观察到，与未患有ASD的儿童相比，患有ASD的儿童的全脑GM体积明显更大，但这两组之间在区域GM体积上没有差异。对于未患有ASD的儿童，双侧前额叶皮质和小脑的GM体积与语言分数显著相关；双侧前额叶皮质的GM体积与社交分数显著相关。在患有ASD儿童中未发现显著相关性。
我们的数据表明，在未患有ASD的学龄前儿童中，区域GM体积与早期语言和社交能力之间存在相关性，而这些关联的缺失似乎是患有ASD儿童语言和社交缺陷的基础。这些发现为患有和未患有ASD的学龄前儿童语言和社交能力相关的神经解剖学基础提供了新的证据，这有助于更好地理解ASD中语言和社交功能的早期缺陷。
