Mapping Progressive Gray Matter Alterations in Early Childhood Autistic Brain

Xiaonan Guo; Xujun Duan; John Suckling; Jia Wang; Xiaodong Kang; Heng Chen; Bharat B Biswal; Jing Cao; Changchun He; Jinming Xiao; Xinyue Huang; Runshi Wang; Shaoqiang Han; Yun-Shuang Fan; Jing Guo; Jingping Zhao; Lijie Wu; Huafu Chen

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhaa304

Mapping Progressive Gray Matter Alterations in Early Childhood Autistic Brain

Cereb Cortex. 2021 Feb 5;31(3):1500-1510. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa304.

Authors

Xiaonan Guo¹, Xujun Duan^{1

2}, John Suckling³, Jia Wang⁴, Xiaodong Kang⁵, Heng Chen^{2

6}, Bharat B Biswal^{2

7}, Jing Cao⁵, Changchun He², Jinming Xiao², Xinyue Huang², Runshi Wang¹, Shaoqiang Han², Yun-Shuang Fan², Jing Guo², Jingping Zhao⁸, Lijie Wu⁴, Huafu Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China.
² MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
³ Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SZ, UK; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge CB21 5EF, UK.
⁴ Department of Children's and Adolescent Health, Public Health College of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, China.
⁵ Affiliated Sichuan Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital of Chengdu University of TCM, Sichuan Bayi Rehabilitation Center, Chengdu 611135, China.
⁶ School of Medicine, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.
⁷ Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, China.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder is an early-onset neurodevelopmental condition. This study aimed to investigate the progressive structural alterations in the autistic brain during early childhood. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were examined in a cross-sectional sample of 67 autistic children and 63 demographically matched typically developing (TD) children, aged 2-7 years. Voxel-based morphometry and a general linear model were used to ascertain the effects of diagnosis, age, and a diagnosis-by-age interaction on the gray matter volume. Causal structural covariance network analysis was performed to map the interregional influences of brain structural alterations with increasing age. The autism group showed spatially distributed increases in gray matter volume when controlling for age-related effects, compared with TD children. A significant diagnosis-by-age interaction effect was observed in the fusiform face area (FFA, Fpeak = 13.57) and cerebellum/vermis (Fpeak = 12.73). Compared with TD children, the gray matter development of the FFA in autism displayed altered influences on that of the social brain network regions (false discovery rate corrected, P < 0.05). Our findings indicate the atypical neurodevelopment of the FFA in the autistic brain during early childhood and highlight altered developmental effects of this region on the social brain network.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02807766.

Keywords: Granger causality; autism spectrum disorder; gray matter volume; neurodevelopment; structural magnetic resonance imaging.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Autism Spectrum Disorder / pathology*
Brain / pathology*
Brain Mapping / methods*
Child
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Gray Matter / pathology*
Humans
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02807766