NEUROIMAGING STUDIES OF AUTISM AND ASPERGER DISORDER

尽管各种数据强烈表明自闭症是一种 神经发育障碍，这种疾病的病因仍然存在 未知。神经影像方法提供了独特的研究能力 体内神经异常。然而，部分由于异质性 诊断方法、研究设计和图像测量程序，有 自闭症神经影像学文献中很少有重复的发现。这个 该项目旨在通过结合两个方面的努力来纠正这些问题 积极从事神经生物学研究的研究实验室 自闭症（加州大学洛杉矶分校和耶鲁大学），扩大他们的资源和样本量，以及 采用一套统一的核心诊断、神经心理学和影像学 跨中心的方法论来解决几个关键假设 关于自闭症的病理生理学。 项目中所有高功能先证者和未受影响的对照 家庭遗传学，将在加州大学洛杉矶分校或 耶鲁大学站点，并将使用相同的诊断和评估进行评估 神经心理学程序。结构神经影像数据将 结合起来对潜在微妙的统计数据进行强有力的检查 自闭症受试者和对照组之间的神经解剖学差异包括： 杏仁核、海马体和部分额叶区域的体积总计 脑容量、神经发育异常和横截面积 胼胝体和小脑蚓部。 MRI 数据来自 自闭症受试者将被编入计算机化地图集， 与正常发育的类似图谱相比。耶鲁大学将进一步推进其 努力验证高功能自闭症和高功能自闭症之间的区别 阿斯伯格综合症，并使用功能性 MRI 扩展试点工作来研究 对面孔和情绪表达的感知。 该项目将代表第一项将遗传学整合到 大样本体内成像和行为研究方法 自闭症受试者和匹配良好的对照，从而提供了独特的 有机会更好地了解自闭症的不同表现。

Although a variety of data strongly indicate that autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, the etiology of this disorder remains unknown. Neuroimaging methods offer the unique capability of studying neural abnormalities in vivo. However, due in part to heterogeneity of diagnostic methods, study design and image measurement procedures, there are few replicated findings in the neuroimaging literature of autism. This project seeks to rectify these problems by combining the efforts of two research laboratories active in the investigation of the neurobiology of autism (UCLA and Yale), expanding their resources and sample sizes, and employing a uniform set of core diagnostic, neuropsychological and imaging methodologies across centers to address several critical hypotheses regarding the pathophysiology of autism. All high functioning probands and unaffected controls in the Project Family Genetics, will undergo the neuroimaging protocol at the UCLA or Yale site, and will be assessed with identical diagnostic and neuropsychological procedures. Structural neuroimaging data will be combined for statistically powerful examination of potentially subtle neuroantomic differences between autistic subjects and controls including: volume of the amygdala, hippocampus and select frontal lobe regions, total brain volume, neurodevelopmental abnormalities, and cross-sectional areas of the corpus callosum and the cerebellar vermis. MRI data from the subjects with autism will be compiled into a computerized atlas and compared to a similar atlas of normal development. Yale will further its effort to validate the distinction between higher functioning autism and Asperger syndrome, and extend pilot work using functional MRI to study the perception of faces and emotional expressions. This project would represent the first study to integrate genetics, in vivo imaging and behavioral research methodologies in a large sample of autistic subjects and well matched controls, thus providing a unique opportunity to better understand the varying manifestations of autism.