Abstract
It is widely acknowledged that the brain anatomy of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shows a different developmental pattern then typical age-matched peers. There is however, a paucity of studies examining gray matter in mid and late adulthood in ASD. In this cross-sectional neuroimaging study, we, performed vertex-wise whole-brain and region-of-interest analyses of cortical volume, thickness, surface area, and gyrification index in 51 adults with and 49 without ASD, between 30 and 75 years. There was significant age-related volume loss and cortical thinning, but there were no group differences. The lack of significant anatomical differences between intellectual able individuals with and without ASD, suggests that ASD is not (strongly) related to gray matter morphology in mid and late adulthood.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2810-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a tale of many brain regions, as the anatomical signature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seems to be marked by age-specific changes
It is widely acknowledged that the brain anatomy of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shows a different developmental pattern typical age-matched peers
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a tale of many brain regions, as the anatomical signature of ASD seems to be marked by age-specific changes
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a tale of many brain regions, as the anatomical signature of ASD seems to be marked by age-specific changes. The findings predominantly point toward anomalies (but see Haar et al 2014) in the frontal and parietal lobes, the limbic system, and the cerebellum, though directions and magnitude vary across studies (Cauda et al 2011; Duerden et al 2012; Nickl-Jockschat et al 2012; Stanfield et al 2008; Via et al 2011) This is further substantiated by post-mortem research contributions of different cellular factors (e.g. neuronal numbers, dendritic growth and number of synapses, and number and size of glial cells) in frontal, parietal and anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala and the cerebellum (Schumann and Nordahl 2011). We will focus on middle and older aged adults with ASD
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