Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-Str. 8, 35037, Marburg, Germany.
Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg, Justus Liebig University Gießen, and Technical University of Darmstadt, Hans-Meerwein-Straße 6, 35032, Marburg, Germany.
Mol Autism. 2024 Oct 8;15(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s13229-024-00623-3.
Autistic-like traits (ALT) are prevalent across the general population and might be linked to some facets of a broader autism spectrum disorder (ASD) phenotype. Recent studies suggest an association of these traits with both genetic and brain structural markers in non-autistic individuals, showing similar spatial location of findings observed in ASD and thus suggesting a potential neurobiological continuum.
In this study, we first tested an association of ALTs (assessed with the AQ questionnaire) with cortical complexity, a cortical surface marker of early neurodevelopment, and then the association with disrupted functional connectivity. We analysed structural T1-weighted and resting-state functional MRI scans in 250 psychiatrically healthy individuals without a history of early developmental disorders, in a first step using the CAT12 toolbox for cortical complexity analysis and in a second step we used regional cortical complexity findings to apply the CONN toolbox for seed-based functional connectivity analysis.
Our findings show a significant negative correlation of both AQ total and AQ attention switching subscores with left superior temporal sulcus (STS) cortical folding complexity, with the former being significantly correlated with STS to left lateral occipital cortex connectivity, while the latter showed significant positive correlation of STS to left inferior/middle frontal gyrus connectivity (n = 233; all p < 0.05, FWE cluster-level corrected). Additional analyses also revealed a significant correlation of AQ attention to detail subscores with STS to left lateral occipital cortex connectivity.
Phenotyping might affect association results (e.g. choice of inventories); in addition, our study was limited to subclinical expressions of autistic-like traits.
Our findings provide further evidence for biological correlates of ALT even in the absence of clinical ASD, while establishing a link between structural variation of early developmental origin and functional connectivity.
自闭症样特质（ALT）在普通人群中普遍存在，可能与更广泛的自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）表型的某些方面有关。最近的研究表明，这些特质与非自闭症个体的遗传和大脑结构标志物有关，在 ASD 中观察到的发现具有相似的空间位置，从而表明存在潜在的神经生物学连续性。
在这项研究中，我们首先测试了 ALT（通过 AQ 问卷评估）与皮质复杂度的关联，皮质复杂度是早期神经发育的皮质表面标志物，然后测试了与功能连接中断的关联。我们在没有早期发育障碍史的 250 名精神健康个体中分析了结构 T1 加权和静息状态功能 MRI 扫描，在第一步中使用 CAT12 工具包进行皮质复杂度分析，在第二步中，我们使用区域皮质复杂度发现应用 CONN 工具包进行基于种子的功能连接分析。
我们的发现表明，AQ 总分和 AQ 注意力转换子分数与左侧颞上回（STS）皮质折叠复杂度呈显著负相关，前者与 STS 到左侧外侧枕叶皮质的连接显著相关，而后者显示 STS 与左侧下/中额回的连接呈显著正相关（n=233；所有 p<0.05，FWE 簇水平校正）。额外的分析还表明，AQ 对细节的关注子分数与 STS 到左侧外侧枕叶皮质的连接呈显著相关。
表型可能会影响关联结果（例如，量表的选择）；此外，我们的研究仅限于亚临床表达的自闭症样特质。
我们的研究结果提供了 ALT 的生物学相关性的进一步证据，即使在没有临床 ASD 的情况下也是如此，同时建立了早期发育起源的结构变异与功能连接之间的联系。
