Are Autistic Traits in the General Population Related to Global and Regional Brain Differences?

There is accumulating evidence that autistic-related traits in the general population lie on a continuum, with autism spectrum disorders representing the extreme end of this distribution. Here, we tested the hypothesis of a possible relationship between autistic traits and brain morphometry in the g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2015-09, Vol.45 (9), p.2779-2791
Main Authors: Koolschijn, P. Cédric M. P., Geurts, Hilde M., van der Leij, Andries R., Scholte, H. Steven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Age
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Autistic Disorder - diagnosis
Autistic Disorder - epidemiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Brain
Brain Hemisphere Functions
Care and treatment
Child and School Psychology
Correlation
Diagnosis
Diagnostic Tests
Female
Foreign Countries
Gray Matter - anatomy & histology
Humans
Hypothesis Testing
Male
Medical imaging
Meta Analysis
Netherlands
Neuroimaging
Neurosciences
Organ Size
Original Paper
Pediatrics
Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Population Distribution
Psychology
Psychometrics
Public Health
Questionnaires
Scientific Concepts
Scores
Socioeconomic Factors
Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
White Matter - anatomy & histology
Young Adult
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Summary:There is accumulating evidence that autistic-related traits in the general population lie on a continuum, with autism spectrum disorders representing the extreme end of this distribution. Here, we tested the hypothesis of a possible relationship between autistic traits and brain morphometry in the general population. Participants completed the short autism-spectrum quotient-questionnaire (AQ); T1-anatomical and DWI-scans were acquired. Associations between autistic traits and gray matter, and white matter microstructural-integrity were performed on the exploration-group (N = 204; 105 males, M-age = 22.85), and validated in the validation-group (N = 304; 155 males, M-age = 22.82). No significant associations were found between AQ-scores and brain morphometry in the exploration-group, or after pooling the data. This questions the assumption that autistic traits and their morphological associations do lie on a continuum in the general population.
ISSN:0162-3257
1573-3432
DOI:10.1007/s10803-015-2441-6