Large-scale analyses of the relationship between sex, age and intelligence quotient heterogeneity and cortical morphometry in autism spectrum disorder
Large-scale analyses of the relationship between sex, age and intelligence quotient heterogeneity and cortical morphometry in autism spectrum disorder
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DOI：
10.1038/s41380-019-0420-6
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发表时间：
2020-03-01
影响因子：
11
通讯作者：
Chakravarty, M. Mallar
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bedford, Saashi A.;Park, Min Tae M.;Chakravarty, M. Mallar
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者的病因学、神经生物学和临床表型存在显著异质性。基于神经影像学的ASD神经解剖学研究经常报告不一致的结果，这在一定程度上可能是由于对影响临床异质性的因素及其与脑解剖学的关系了解不足。为此，我们对ASD患者的皮质形态进行了大规模的检查，并特别关注了三种潜在异质性来源的影响：性别、年龄和全面智力（FIQ）。为了研究这些潜在的微妙关系，我们收集了一个大型的多站点数据集，并对其进行了严格的质量控制（从3145个磁共振图像的初始数据集中产生了1327个最终样本；491名自闭症患者）。使用荟萃分析技术来解释位点间差异，我们发现ASD个体相对于对照组的皮质厚度更大，在以前与ASD有关的区域，包括颞上回和额下沟。在性别特异性区域观察到更大的皮质厚度；此外，在年轻个体和FIQ较低的个体中观察到皮层厚度差异更大，并且与总体临床严重程度有关。这项工作是分析影响ASD神经解剖学异质性因素的重要一步，也是建立个体特异性生物标志物的潜在一步。
Significant heterogeneity across aetiologies, neurobiology and clinical phenotypes have been observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Neuroimaging-based neuroanatomical studies of ASD have often reported inconsistent findings which may, in part, be attributable to an insufficient understanding of the relationship between factors influencing clinical heterogeneity and their relationship to brain anatomy. To this end, we performed a large-scale examination of cortical morphometry in ASD, with a specific focus on the impact of three potential sources of heterogeneity: sex, age and full-scale intelligence (FIQ). To examine these potentially subtle relationships, we amassed a large multi-site dataset that was carefully quality controlled (yielding a final sample of 1327 from the initial dataset of 3145 magnetic resonance images; 491 individuals with ASD). Using a meta-analytic technique to account for inter-site differences, we identified greater cortical thickness in individuals with ASD relative to controls, in regions previously implicated in ASD, including the superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal sulcus. Greater cortical thickness was observed in sex specific regions; further, cortical thickness differences were observed to be greater in younger individuals and in those with lower FIQ, and to be related to overall clinical severity. This work serves as an important step towards parsing factors that influence neuroanatomical heterogeneity in ASD and is a potential step towards establishing individual-specific biomarkers.