Assessing cortical features in early stage ASD children.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Pediatric Neurology

Background:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder.
• Neuroimaging reveals atypical brain development in ASD patients, even before clinical symptoms.
• Cortical Thickness (CT) and Local Gyrification Index (LGI) are key brain morphologic measures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate CT and LGI in children with ASD.
• To explore relationships between brain measures and individual characteristics like IQ and verbal ability.
• To identify neuroanatomical differences in ASD subgroups.

Main Methods:

• Acquired 3D T1-weighted MRI sequences from 129 ASD children and 58 age-matched Healthy Controls (HC).
• Processed MRI data to assess CT and LGI for all subjects.
• Conducted intergroup analyses, including ASD subgroups based on verbal ability and IQ.

Main Results:

• ASD group showed increased CT and LGI compared to HC, both overall and in subgroups.
• Verbal ASD subgroups exhibited significant CT and LGI increases in the right occipital lobe.
• No significant differences in CT or LGI were found when comparing ASD patients by IQ.

Conclusions:

• Results support abnormal brain maturation in early childhood ASD.
• Differences among clinical subgroups suggest distinct anatomical substrates for aberrant connectivity.
• Brain morphologic alterations in ASD may vary based on clinical characteristics like verbal ability.