Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder in a study of 54 datasets.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Postema MC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6823355 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Small average differences in the left-right asymmetry of cerebral cortical thickness have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing controls, affecting widespread cortical regions. The possible impacts of these regional alterations in terms of structural network effects have not previously been characterized. Inter-regional morphological covariance analysis can capture network connectivity between different cortical areas at the macroscale level. Here, we used cortical thickness data from 1455 individuals with ASD and 1560 controls, across 43 independent datasets of the ENIGMA consortium's ASD Working Group, to assess hemispheric asymmetries of intra-individual structural covariance networks, using graph theory-based topological metrics. Compared with typical features of small-world architecture in controls, the ASD sample showed significantly altered average asymmetry of networks involving the fusiform, rostral middle frontal, and medial orbitofrontal cortex, involving higher randomization of the corresponding right-hemispheric networks in ASD. A network involving the superior frontal cortex showed decreased right-hemisphere randomization. Based on comparisons with meta-analyzed functional neuroimaging data, the altered connectivity asymmetry particularly affected networks that subserve executive functions, language-related and sensorimotor processes. These findings provide a network-level characterization of altered left-right brain asymmetry in ASD, based on a large combined sample. Altered asymmetrical brain development in ASD may be partly propagated among spatially distant regions through structural connectivity.
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Project description:Chromosomal abnormalities have been identified in some individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but their full etiologic role is unknown. Submicroscopic copy number variation (CNV) represents a considerable source of genetic variation in the human genome that contributes to phenotypic differences and disease susceptibility. To explore the contribution CNV imbalances in ASD, we genotyped unrelated ASD index cases using the Affymetrix GeneChip® 500K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping array. Keywords: Whole Genome Mapping SNP Genotyping Array
2007-12-20 | GSE9222 | GEO
Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder characterized by social impairment and restricted interactive and communicative behaviors. It may occur as an isolated disorder or in the context of other neurological, psychiatric, developmental, and genetic disorders. Due to rapid developments in genomics and imaging technologies, imaging genetics studies of ASD have evolved in the last few years. Increased risk for ASD diagnosis is found to be related to many specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms, and the study of genetic mechanisms and noninvasive imaging has opened various approaches that can help diagnose ASD at the nascent level. Identifying risk genes related to structural and functional changes in the brain of ASD patients provide a better understanding of the disease's neuropsychiatry and can help identify targets for therapeutic intervention that could be useful for the clinical management of ASD patients.
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Project description:Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings, focusing mainly on children. Interpersonal distance in adults with ASD and related autonomic functions received less attention. Here, we measured interpersonal distance along with heart rate variability (HRV) in adults with ASD, and tested the modulatory effects of eye-contact and attribution. Twenty-two adults diagnosed with ASD and 21 matched neurotypical controls participated in our study from October 2019 to February 2020. Our experimental design combined the modified version of the stop distance paradigm with HRV measurement controlling for eye contact between the experimenter and the participant to measure interpersonal distance. Still, we did not detect significant modulatory effect of eye contact and attribution. Our results showed a greater preferred distance in ASD. Moreover, we found lower baseline HRV and reduced HRV reactivity in ASD; however, these autonomic measurements could not predict preferred interpersonal distance. Our study highlights the importance of interpersonal space regulation in ASD: it might be considered that people with ASD need individually variable, presumably greater interpersonal distance. In addition, regardless of the distance they may have reduced autonomic regulatory capacity in social situations. Our results could help shape future experiments with sophisticated designs to grasp the complexity and underlying factors of distance regulation in typical and atypical populations.
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Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often described as a disorder of aberrant neural connectivity and/or aberrant hemispheric lateralization. Although it is important to study the pathophysiology of the developing ASD cortex, the physiological connectivity of the brain in young children with ASD under conscious conditions has not yet been described. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive brain imaging technique that is practical for use in young children. MEG produces a reference-free signal and is, therefore, an ideal tool for computing the coherence between two distant cortical rhythms. Using a custom child-sized MEG, we recently reported that 5- to 7-year-old children with ASD (n = 26) have inherently different neural pathways than typically developing (TD) children that contribute to their relatively preserved performance of visual tasks. In this study, we performed non-invasive measurements of the brain activity of 70 young children (3-7 years old, of which 18 were aged 3-4 years), a sample consisting of 35 ASD children and 35 TD children. Physiological connectivity and the laterality of physiological connectivity were assessed using intrahemispheric coherence for 9 frequency bands. As a result, significant rightward connectivity between the parietotemporal areas, via gamma band oscillations, was found in the ASD group. As we obtained the non-invasive measurements using a custom child-sized MEG, this is the first study to demonstrate a rightward-lateralized neurophysiological network in conscious young children (including children aged 3-4 years) with ASD.
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Project description:Many past studies have suggested atypical functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, almost all of these have examined only language-related asymmetries. Here, we conduct a comprehensive investigation of microstructural asymmetries across a large number of fiber tracts in ASD.We used diffusion tensor imaging for a comprehensive investigation of anatomical white matter asymmetries across the entire white matter skeleton, using tract-based spatial statistics in 41 children and adolescents with ASD and a matched group of 44 typically developing (TD) participants.We found significant asymmetries in the TD group, being rightward for fractional anisotropy and leftward for mean diffusivity (with concordant asymmetries for radial and axial diffusivity). These asymmetries were significantly reduced in the group with ASD: in whole brain analysis for fractional anisotropy, and in a region where several major association and projection tracts travel in close proximity within occipital white matter for mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity. No correlations between global white matter asymmetry and age or socio-communicative abilities were detected.Our findings in TD children and adolescents can be interpreted as reflecting different processing modes (more integrative in the right and more specialized in the left hemisphere). These asymmetries and the "division of labor" between hemispheres implied by them appear to be diminished in autism spectrum disorder.
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Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a brain-based pervasive developmental disorder, which-by growing consensus-is associated with abnormal organization of functional networks. Several previous studies of ASD have indicated atypical hemispheric asymmetries for language.To examine the asymmetry of functional networks using a data-driven approach for a comprehensive investigation of hemispheric asymmetry in ASD.This cross-sectional study involved 24 children with ASD and 26 matched typically developing children at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. Data from 10 children had to be excluded for excessive motion, resulting in final samples of 20 participants per group.Asymmetry indices of functional networks identified from independent component analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data.Temporal concatenation independent component analysis, performed separately in each group, showed significant group differences in asymmetry indices for 10 out of 17 functional networks. Without exception, these networks (visual, auditory, motor, executive, language, and attentional) showed atypical rightward asymmetry shifts in the ASD group.Atypical rightward asymmetry may be a pervasive feature of functional brain organization in ASD, affecting sensorimotor, as well as higher cognitive, domains.
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Project description:Atypical growth patterns of the brain have been previously reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but these alterations are heterogeneous across individuals, which may be associated with the variable effects of genetic and environmental influences on brain development. Monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with and without ASD (aged 6-15 years) were recruited to participate in this study. T1-weighted MRIs (n = 164) were processed with FreeSurfer to evaluate structural brain measures. Intra-class correlations were examined within twin pairs and compared across diagnostic groups. ACE modeling was also completed. Structural brain measures, including cerebral and cerebellar gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume, surface area, and cortical thickness, were primarily influenced by genetic factors in TD twins; however, mean curvature appeared to be primarily influenced by environmental factors. Similarly, genetic factors accounted for the majority of variation in brain size in twins with ASD, potentially to a larger extent regarding curvature and subcortical GM; however, there were also more environmental contributions in twins with ASD on some structural brain measures, such that cortical thickness and cerebellar WM volume were primarily influenced by environmental factors. These findings indicate potential neurobiological outcomes of the genetic and environmental risk factors that have been previously associated with ASD and, although preliminary, may help account for some of the previously outlined neurobiological heterogeneity across affected individuals. This is especially relevant regarding the role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of ASD, in which certain brain structures may be more sensitive to specific influences.
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Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable neuroanatomical heterogeneity. Thus, how and to what extent the brains of individuals with ASD differ from each other is still unclear. In this study, brain structural MRI data from 356 right-handed, male subjects with ASD and 403 right-handed male healthy controls were selected from the Autism Brain Image Data Exchange database (age range 5-35 years old). Voxel-based morphometry preprocessing steps were conducted to compute the gray matter volume maps for each subject. Individual neuroanatomical difference patterns for each ASD individual were calculated. A data-driven clustering method was next utilized to stratify individuals with ASD into several subtypes. Whole-brain functional connectivity and clinical severity were compared among individuals within the ASD subtypes identified. A searchlight analysis was applied to determine whether subtyping ASD could improve the classification accuracy between ASD and healthy controls. Three ASD subtypes with distinct neuroanatomical difference patterns were revealed. Different degrees of clinical severity and atypical brain functional connectivity patterns were observed among these three subtypes. By dividing ASD into three subtypes, the classification accuracy between subjects of two out of the three subtypes and healthy controls was improved. The current study confirms that ASD is not a disorder with a uniform neuroanatomical signature. Understanding neuroanatomical heterogeneity in ASD could help to explain divergent patterns of clinical severity and outcomes.
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Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis is increasing, with 1/88 children believed to be affected by the disorder, with a most recent survey suggesting numbers as high as 1/50. Treatment and understanding of ASD causes is a pressing health concern. ASD protein biomarkers may provide clues about ASD cause. Protein biomarkers for ASDs could be used for ASD diagnosis, subtyping, treatment monitoring and identifying therapeutic targets. Here we analyzed the sera from 7 children with ASD and 7 matched controls using Tricine gel electrophoresis (Tricine-PAGE) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Overall, we found increased levels of apolipoproteins (Apos) ApoA1 and ApoA4, involved in cholesterol metabolism and of serum paraoxanase/arylesterase 1 (PON1), involved in preventing oxidative damage, in the sera of children with ASD, compared with their matched controls. All three proteins are predicted to interact with each other and are parts of High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs). Further studies are needed to validate these findings in larger subject numbers.
2022-02-22 | PXD000679 | Pride