Case-control study on gray matter volume in 3~8 years old male children with autism spectrum disorder

CHEN Lei; WANG Jia; FU Kuang; WU Qiong; GUO Xiao-nan; WU Li-jie

doi:10.11852/zgetbjzz2017-25-07-03

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Chinese Journal of Child Health Care ›› 2017, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (7) : 656-659. DOI: 10.11852/zgetbjzz2017-25-07-03

Orignal Article

Case-control study on gray matter volume in 3~8 years old male children with autism spectrum disorder

CHEN Lei¹, WANG Jia¹, FU Kuang², WU Qiong², GUO Xiao-nan³, WU Li-jie¹

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Abstract

Objective To investigate the changes of the gray matter volume (GMV) in 3~8-year-old male children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with typically developing male controls (TD) and then assess whether these structural changes were associated with autistic behavioral symptoms. Methods Anatomical T1 images of the whole brain were scanned from 31 ASD male children and 31 normally typically developing male children controls aged 3~8 years.We applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) techniques to obtain GMV of each brain regions.A voxel-by-voxel two sample t-test combined an Alphasim multiple correction were applied to compare the GMV between ASD group and TD group.The correlations between GMV of the brain regions which showed group difference and the clinical symptom severity were examined. Results Differences were detected in regional GMV between the ASD and TD group.Compaired to control,ASD children showed significantly increased GMV in a large cluster(voxel:z=2 981),including the left superior temporal gyrus (x,y,z:-50.5,-9.5,7.5) and the left postcentral gyrus (x,y,z:-61.5,-7.5,31.5).There was no significant correlation between GMV of the two brain regions and any scores of the ADOS,ADI-R and ABC scores,including the total and subscale scores(P>0.05). Conclusion sGMV of the left superior temporal gyrus and the left postcentral gyrus of 3-8-year-old male children with ASD increase.This study provides an Objective imaging evidence for the pathogenesis of damaged communicational ability and somatosensory anomalies in ASD children.

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autism spectrum disorder / voxel-based morphometry / gray matter volume

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CHEN Lei, WANG Jia, FU Kuang, WU Qiong, GUO Xiao-nan, WU Li-jie. Case-control study on gray matter volume in 3~8 years old male children with autism spectrum disorder[J]. Chinese Journal of Child Health Care. 2017, 25(7): 656-659 https://doi.org/10.11852/zgetbjzz2017-25-07-03

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