Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Frontal Lobe in Autism Spectrum Disorder

To investigate frontal lobe white matter in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we performed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in 50 ASD children (mean age: 57.5 ± 29.2 months, 43 males) and 16 typically developing children (mean age: 82.1 ± 41.4 months, 11 males). The apparent diffusion coef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2008-11, Vol.18 (11), p.2659-2665
Main Authors: Sundaram, Senthil K., Kumar, Ajay, Makki, Malek I., Behen, Michael E., Chugani, Harry T., Chugani, Diane C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
apparent diffusion coefficient
Autism
Autistic Disorder - pathology
Child
Child, Preschool
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Female
fractional anisotropy
Frontal Lobe - pathology
Humans
magnetic resonance imaging
Male
Nerve Fibers - pathology
Neural Pathways - pathology
short range connectivity
tractography
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Summary:To investigate frontal lobe white matter in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we performed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in 50 ASD children (mean age: 57.5 ± 29.2 months, 43 males) and 16 typically developing children (mean age: 82.1 ± 41.4 months, 11 males). The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was significantly higher for whole frontal lobe (P = 0.011), long (P < 0.001) and short range (P = 0.0126) association fibers in ASD group. There was a trend toward statistical significance in the fractional anisotropy (FA) of whole frontal lobe fibers (P = 0.11). FA was significantly lower in ASD group for short range fibers (P = 0.0031) but not for long range fibers (P = not significant [NS]). There was no between-group difference in the number of frontal lobe fibers (short and long) (P = NS). The fiber length distribution was significantly more positively skewed in the normal population than in the ASD group (P < 0.001). The long range association fibers of frontal lobe were significantly longer in ASD group (P = 0.026 for both left and right hemispheres). Abnormal frontal FA and ADC may be due to white matter organization abnormalities in ASD. Lack of evidence for excessive short range connectivity in ASD in this study may need to be re-examined with future advances in DTI technology.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhn031