Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 66, Issue 4, 15 August 2009, Pages 320-326
Biological Psychiatry

Archival Report
A Preliminary Longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Brain Volume and Cortical Thickness in Autism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.04.024Get rights and content

Background

Autism is a developmental neurobiologic disorder associated with structural and functional abnormalities in several brain regions including the cerebral cortex. This longitudinal study examined developmental changes in brain volume and cortical thickness (CT) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in children with autism.

Methods

MRI scans and behavioral measures were obtained at baseline and after a 30-month interval in a sample of male subjects with autism (n = 18) and healthy age-, and sex-matched control subjects (n = 16) between ages 8 and 12 years at baseline.

Results

No differences in brain volumes were observed between the autism and control subjects at baseline or follow-up. However, differences in total gray matter volumes were observed over time with significantly greater decreases in the autism group compared with control subjects. Differences in CT were observed over time with greater decreases in the autism group compared with control subjects in several brain regions including the frontal lobe. When accounting for multiple comparisons, differences between the two groups became nonsignificant except for changes in occipital CT. Furthermore, associations were observed between several clinical features and changes in CT with greater thinning of the cortex being correlated with more severe symptomatology.

Conclusions

Findings from this study provide preliminary evidence for age-related changes in gray matter volume and CT in children with autism that are associated with symptoms severity. Future longitudinal studies of larger sample sizes are needed to evaluate developmental changes and examine the relationships between structural abnormalities and clinical expressions of the disorder.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty-four children and adolescents (autism, n = 18; control, n = 16) were selected from an original sample of 40 who met inclusion and exclusion criteria. One individual with autism was not willing to be part of the procedures at follow-up because of the discomfort he experienced during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning. Three individuals with autism were excluded because they did not have good quality scans at either baseline or follow-up. Two control subjects were not able to

Results

No differences were observed between participants with autism and the control group on any of the demographic characteristics except for FSIQ (Table 1). Previously published baseline data from a subsample of this group revealed an increase in CT in children with autism when compared with control subjects (17). Changes over time were examined and differences in gray matter volumes were observed (Δ = Time 02 − Time 01) with significantly more decrease in gray matter volume in the autism group

Discussion

In this longitudinal investigation, we measured developmental changes in brain volume and in CT in a group of children aged 8–12 years with autism compared with sex and age group-matched healthy control subjects. A decrease in gray matter volume was observed over time and appeared to be related, at least partially, to a decrease in CT. Associations between developmental changes in CT and several clinical features were also observed. However, most of the significant findings disappeared when

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