Disorder-Specific Alteration in White Matter Structural Property in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder Relative to Adults With ADHD and Adult Controls

• Published in: Human brain mapping 2017-01, Vol.38 (1), p.384-395
• Main Authors: Chiang, Huey-Ling, Chen, Yu-Jen, Lin, Hsiang-Yuan, Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac, Gau, Susan Shur-Fen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Anisotropy; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnostic imaging; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - pathology; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Autism Spectrum Disorder - pathology; Case-Control Studies; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nerve Fibers, Myelinated - pathology; Severity of Illness Index; Statistics as Topic; Translating; White Matter - diagnostic imaging; White Matter - pathology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23367

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not only often comorbid but also overlapped in behavioral and cognitive abnormalities. Little is known about whether these shared phenotypes are based on common or different underlying neuropathologies. Therefore, this study aims to examine the disorder-specific alterations in white matter (WM) structural property. The three comparison groups included 23 male adults with ASD (21.4 ± 3.1 years), 32 male adults with ADHD (23.4 ± 3.3 years), and 29 age-matched healthy male controls (22.4 ± 3.3 years). After acquisition of the diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), whole brain tractography was reconstructed by a tract-based automatic analysis. Generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) values were computed to indicate tract-specific WM property with adjusted P value