Disrupted focal white matter integrity in autism spectrum disorder: A voxel-based meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2-2018

Abstract

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a mental disorder that has long been considered to result from brain underconnectivity. However, volumetric analysis of structural MRI data has failed to find consistent white matter alterations in patients with ASD. The present study aims to examine whether there are consistent focal white matter alterations as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in individuals with ASD compared with typically developing (TD) individuals. Method Coordinate-based meta-analysis was performed on 14 studies that reported fractional anisotropy (FA) alterations between individuals with ASD and TD individuals. These studies have in total 297 subjects with ASD and 302 TD subjects. Results Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis identified two clusters of white matter regions that showed consistent reduction of FA in individuals with ASD compared with TD individuals: the left splenium of corpus callosum and the right cerebral peduncle. Conclusions Consistent focal white matter reductions in ASD could be identified by using FA, highlighting the cerebral peduncle which is usually overlooked in studies focusing on major white matter tracts. These focal reductions in the splenium and the cerebral peduncle may be associated with sensorimotor impairments seen in individuals with ASD.

Identifier

85033570346 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Progress in Neuro Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2017.11.007

e-ISSN

18784216

ISSN

02785846

PubMed ID

29128446

First Page

242

Last Page

248

Volume

82

Grant

R01 AG032088

Fund Ref

National Institutes of Health

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