Top

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

01-07-2009 | Brief Report

Brief Report: Biochemical Correlates of Clinical Impairment in High Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Disorder

Auteurs: Natalia M. Kleinhans, Todd Richards, Kurt E. Weaver, Olivia Liang, Geraldine Dawson, Elizabeth Aylward

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 7/2009

Abstract

Amygdala dysfunction has been proposed as a critical contributor to social impairment in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The current study investigated biochemical abnormalities in the amygdala in 20 high functioning adults with autistic disorder or Asperger’s disorder and 19 typically developing adults matched on age and IQ. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), creatine/phosphocreatine (Cre), choline/choline containing compounds (Cho), and Myoinositol (mI) in the right and left amygdala. There were no significant between-group differences in any of the metabolites. However, NAA and Cre levels were significantly correlated to clinical ratings on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised. This suggests that altered metabolite levels in the amygdala may be associated with a more severe early developmental course in ASD.

vorige artikel Brief Report: The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders at Different Cognitive Levels

volgende artikel Breif Report: Sensory Abnormalities as Distinguishing Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Young Children

Adolphs, R. (2001). The neurobiology of social cognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 11(2), 231–239. doi:10.1016/S0959-4388(00)00202-6.PubMedCrossRef

Adolphs, R., Sears, L., & Piven, J. (2001). Abnormal processing of social information from faces in autism. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13(2), 232–240. doi:10.1162/089892901564289.PubMedCrossRef

Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Hamann, S., Young, A. W., Calder, A. J., Phelps, E. A., et al. (1999). Recognition of facial emotion in nine individuals with bilateral amygdala damage. Neuropsychologia, 37(10), 1111–1117. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(99)00039-1.PubMedCrossRef

Amaral, D. G., Bauman, M. D., & Schumann, C. M. (2003). The amygdala and autism: Implications from non-human primate studies. Genes Brain & Behavior, 2(5), 295–302. doi:10.1034/j.1601-183X.2003.00043.x.CrossRef

Amat, J. A., Bansal, R., Whiteman, R., Haggerty, R., Royal, J., & Peterson, B. S. (2008). Correlates of intellectual ability with morphology of the hippocampus and amygdala in healthy adults. Brain and Cognition, 66(2), 105–114. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2007.05.009.PubMedCrossRef

Ashwin, C., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., O’Riordan, M., & Bullmore, E. T. (2006). Differential activation of the amygdala and the ‘social brain’ during fearful face-processing in Asperger Syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 1, 349–363.

Aylward, E. H., Minshew, N. J., Field, K., Sparks, B. F., & Singh, N. (2002). Effects of age on brain volume and head circumference in autism. Neurology, 59(2), 175–183.PubMed

Aylward, E. H., Minshew, N. J., Goldstein, G., Honeycutt, N. A., Augustine, A. M., Yates, K. O., et al. (1999). MRI volumes of amygdala and hippocampus in non-mentally retarded autistic adolescents and adults. Neurology, 53(9), 2145–2150.PubMed

Bachevalier, J., & Loveland, K. A. (2006). The orbitofrontal-amygdala circuit and self-regulation of social-emotional behavior in autism. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 30(1), 97–117. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.07.002.PubMedCrossRef

Barker, P. B., Soher, B. J., Blackband, S. J., Chatham, J. C., Mathews, V. P., & Bryan, R. N. (1993). Quantitation of proton NMR spectra of the human brain using tissue water as an internal concentration reference. NMR in Biomedicine, 6(1), 89–94. doi:10.1002/nbm.1940060114.PubMedCrossRef

Baron-Cohen, S., Ring, H. A., Bullmore, E. T., Wheelwright, S., Ashwin, C., & Williams, S. C. (2000). The amygdala theory of autism. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 24(3), 355–364. doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(00)00011-7.PubMedCrossRef

Baron-Cohen, S., Ring, H. A., Wheelwright, S., Bullmore, E. T., Brammer, M. J., Simmons, A., et al. (1999). Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brain: An fMRI study. The European Journal of Neuroscience, 11(6), 1891–1898. doi:10.1046/j.1460-9568.1999.00621.x.PubMedCrossRef

Brooks, W. M., Friedman, S. D., & Stidley, C. A. (1999). Reproducibility of 1H-MRS in vivo. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 41(1), 193–197. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1522-2594(199901)41:1<193::AID-MRM27>3.0.CO;2-P.PubMedCrossRef

Courchesne, E., Karns, C. M., Davis, H. R., Ziccardi, R., Carper, R. A., Tigue, Z. D., et al. (2001). Unusual brain growth patterns in early life in patients with autistic disorder: An MRI study. Neurology, 57(2), 245–254.PubMed

Critchley, H. D., Daly, E. M., Bullmore, E. T., Williams, S. C., Van Amelsvoort, T., Robertson, D. M., et al. (2000). The functional neuroanatomy of social behaviour: Changes in cerebral blood flow when people with autistic disorder process facial expressions. Brain, 123(Pt 11), 2203–2212. doi:10.1093/brain/123.11.2203.PubMedCrossRef

Dalton, K. M., Nacewicz, B. M., Johnstone, T., Schaefer, H. S., Gernsbacher, M. A., Goldsmith, H. H., et al. (2005). Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nature Neuroscience, 8(4), 519–526.PubMed

Endo, T., Shioiri, T., Kitamura, H., Kimura, T., Endo, S., Masuzawa, N., et al. (2007). Altered chemical metabolites in the amygdala-hippocampus region contribute to autistic symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 62(9), 1030–1037. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.015.PubMedCrossRef

Friedman, S. D., Shaw, D. W., Artru, A. A., Richards, T. L., Gardner, J., Dawson, G., et al. (2003). Regional brain chemical alterations in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Neurology, 60(1), 100–107.PubMed

Gabis, L., Wei, H., Azizian, A., DeVincent, C., Tudorica, A., Kesner-Baruch, Y., et al. (2008). 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy markers of cognitive and language ability in clinical subtypes of autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Neurology, 23(7), 766–774. doi:10.1177/0883073808315423.PubMedCrossRef

Jung, R. E., Brooks, W. M., Yeo, R. A., Chiulli, S. J., Weers, D. C., & Sibbitt, W. L., Jr. (1999). Biochemical markers of intelligence: a proton MR spectroscopy study of normal human brain. Proc Biol Sci, 266(1426), 1375–1379. doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0790.PubMedCrossRef

Jung, R. E., Yeo, R. A., Chiulli, S. J., Sibbitt, W. L., Jr, & Brooks, W. M. (2000). Myths of neuropsychology: intelligence, neurometabolism, and cognitive ability. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 14(4), 535–545. doi:10.1076/clin.14.4.535.7198.PubMed

Kleinhans, N. M., Richards, T., Sterling, L., Stegbauer, K. C., Mahurin, R., Johnson, L. C., et al. (2008). Abnormal functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorders during face processing. Brain, 131(Pt 4), 1000–1012. doi:10.1093/brain/awm334.PubMedCrossRef

Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E., Leventhal, B., DiLavore, P., et al. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30(3), 205–223. doi:10.1023/A:1005592401947.PubMedCrossRef

Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 659–685. doi:10.1007/BF02172145.PubMedCrossRef

Munson, J., Dawson, G., Abbott, R., Faja, S., Webb, S. J., Friedman, S. D., et al. (2006). Amygdalar volume and behavioral development in autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(6), 686–693. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.63.6.686.PubMedCrossRef

Murphy, D. G., Critchley, H. D., Schmitz, N., McAlonan, G., Van Amelsvoort, T., Robertson, D., et al. (2002). Asperger syndrome: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of brain. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59(10), 885–891. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.59.10.885.PubMedCrossRef

Nacewicz, B. M., Dalton, K. M., Johnstone, T., Long, M. T., McAuliff, E. M., Oakes, T. R., et al. (2006). Amygdala volume and nonverbal social impairment in adolescent and adult males with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(12), 1417–1428. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.63.12.1417.PubMedCrossRef

Otsuka, H., Harada, M., Mori, K., Hisaoka, S., & Nishitani, H. (1999). Brain metabolites in the hippocampus-amygdala region and cerebellum in autism: An 1H-MR spectroscopy study. Neuroradiology, 41(7), 517–519. doi:10.1007/s002340050795.PubMedCrossRef

Page, L. A., Daly, E., Schmitz, N., Simmons, A., Toal, F., Deeley, Q., et al. (2006). In vivo 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of amygdala-hippocampal and parietal regions in autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 2189–2192.

Pfefferbaum, A., Adalsteinsson, E., Spielman, D., Sullivan, E. V., & Lim, K. O. (1999). In vivo spectroscopic quantification of the N-acetyl moiety, creatine, and choline from large volumes of brain gray and white matter: Effects of normal aging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 41(2), 276–284. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1522-2594(199902)41:2<276::AID-MRM10>3.0.CO;2-8.PubMedCrossRef

Pierce, K., Muller, R. A., Ambrose, J., Allen, G., & Courchesne, E. (2001). Face processing occurs outside the fusiform ‘face area’ in autism: Evidence from functional MRI. Brain, 124(Pt 10), 2059–2073. doi:10.1093/brain/124.10.2059.PubMedCrossRef

Provencher, S. W. (1993). Estimation of metabolite concentrations from localized in vivo proton NMR spectra. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 30(6), 672–679. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910300604.PubMedCrossRef

Redcay, E., & Courchesne, E. (2005). When is the brain enlarged in autism? A meta-analysis of all brain size reports. Biological Psychiatry, 58(1), 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.03.026.PubMedCrossRef

Schumann, C. M., & Amaral, D. G. (2006). Stereological analysis of amygdala neuron number in autism. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(29), 7674–7679. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1285-06.2006.PubMedCrossRef

Schumann, C. M., Hamstra, J., Goodlin-Jones, B. L., Lotspeich, L. J., Kwon, H., Buonocore, M. H., et al. (2004). The amygdala is enlarged in children but not adolescents with autism; The hippocampus is enlarged at all ages. The Journal of Neuroscience, 24(28), 6392–6401. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1297-04.2004.PubMedCrossRef

Sparks, B. F., Friedman, S. D., Shaw, D. W., Aylward, E. H., Echelard, D., Artru, A. A., et al. (2002). Brain structural abnormalities in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Neurology, 59(2), 184–192.PubMed

Wang, A. T., Dapretto, M., Hariri, A. R., Sigman, M., & Bookheimer, S. Y. (2004). Neural correlates of facial affect processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43(4), 481–490. doi:10.1097/00004583-200404000-00015.PubMedCrossRef

Watson, D., & Friend, R. (1969). Measurement of social-evaluative anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33(4), 448–457. doi:10.1037/h0027806.PubMedCrossRef

Williams, J. H., Waiter, G. D., Gilchrist, A., Perrett, D. I., Murray, A. D., & Whiten, A. (2006). Neural mechanisms of imitation and ‘mirror neuron’ functioning in autistic spectrum disorder. Neuropsychologia, 44(4), 610–621. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.06.010.PubMedCrossRef

Titel: Brief Report: Biochemical Correlates of Clinical Impairment in High Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Disorder
Auteurs: Natalia M. Kleinhans
Todd Richards
Kurt E. Weaver
Olivia Liang
Geraldine Dawson
Elizabeth Aylward
Publicatiedatum: 01-07-2009
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 7/2009
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0707-6

Andere artikelen Uitgave 7/2009

Rebecca Chilvers: The Hidden World of Autism: Writing and Art by Children with High Functioning Autism, Foreword by Uttam Chowdhury

Book Review

Breif Report: Sensory Abnormalities as Distinguishing Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Young Children

Brief Report

Brief Report: The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders at Different Cognitive Levels

Brief Report

Oppositional Defiant and Conduct Disorder Behaviors in Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder With and Without Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Versus Several Comparison Samples

Original Paper

Ann Bauer: A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards

Book Review

JADD Announcements for July 2009

Announcements