Atypical Brain Structures as a Function of Gray Matter Volume (GMV) and Gray Matter Density (GMD) in Young Adults Relating to Autism Spectrum Traits

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Yu Yaxu¹  Zhiting Ren¹  Jamie Ward³  Qiu Jiang¹ 

[1] School of Psychology, Southwest University;Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education;School of Psychology, University of Sussex, United Kingdom;Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, United Kingdom

关键词: autism spectrum traits;    young adults;    gray matter volume;    gray matter density;    voxel-based morphometry;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00523

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Individuals with autistic traits are those who present in the normal population with characteristics of social, communication, personality, and cognitive impairments but do not meet the clinical threshold for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most studies have focused on the abnormalities in ASD patients rather than on individuals with autistic traits. In this study, we focused on the behaviors of a large sample ( N = 401) of Chinese individuals with different levels of autistic traits, measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient, and applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to determine their association to differences in brain structure. The results mainly showed that the correlation between gray matter volume (GMV) and gray matter density of the brain and the Autism Spectrum Quotient was significant in these regions: the right middle frontal gyrus, which are involved in social processing and social reasoning; the left parahippocampal gyrus, which is involved in socioemotional behaviors and unconscious relational memory encoding; and the right superior parietal lobule, which are involved in cognitive control and the ability to show attention to detail. These findings reveal that people with autistic traits in the normal population have atypical development in GMV and gray matter density, which may affect their social functioning and communication ability.

【 授权许可】

CC BY