Overview: Researchers have identified a pattern of white matter connectivity that is restricted to core symptoms of autism. The study also revealed that many structural brain connectivity patterns previously thought to be associated with ASD also overlap with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).
sauce: USC
New findings from an international team of researchers led by USC scientists identify a distinctive pattern of white matter connectivity unique to the brains of people with autism that differs from those of people with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). did.
Their discovery is today scientific report.
About 85% of people with autism have or could be diagnosed with DCD, a condition that interferes with learning and motor control. DCD can impair daily activities such as typing, dressing, and walking, which can result in decreased social participation and satisfaction.
Distinguishing brain activity patterns in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and DCD populations is of great importance. This is because the widespread comorbidity of ASD and DCD confounds previous autism research. symptoms.
“As the scientific community learns more and more about DCD, we realize that white matter differences previously identified in the autism literature may actually result from this underlying movement comorbidity.” said Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, senior author of the study.
“In fact, that’s exactly what our team found. Many of the previous findings likely don’t really reflect the core symptoms of autism, but rather co-occurring DCD.” It is very likely that there will be.”
Aziz-Zadeh is an Associate Professor in the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and co-appointed in the Brain and Creativity Institute and Department of Psychology at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
She manages research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Office of the Director of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activities at the USC for Embodied Cognitive Neuroscience. Center director.
Aziz-Zadeh and colleagues used diffusion-weighted MRI, a technique to observe functional connectivity in the brains of children and teens aged 8 to 17 years assigned to one of three study groups. persons with possible DCD; and typically developing individuals.
The images were analyzed, compared, and correlated with motor and social behavioral assessments completed by the participants.
Researchers have found that many of the brain’s structural connectivity patterns previously thought to be associated with autism overlap with DCD.
The team was able to identify three white matter pathways that display distinctly different connectivity unique to autistic study participants compared to DCD and typically developing groups: the central cingulate. Longitudinal and u-fibers of the gyrus, corpus callosum lesser/anterior commissure and left middle cerebellar peduncle.
These differences also correlated with measures of emotional performance and/or severity of autism in participants with autism.
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The brains of children with DCD showed a distinctive white matter pattern in the left corticospinal and corticospinal tracts.
“These results demonstrate that advanced imaging can be used to distinguish characteristic social and other movement-related symptoms of autism at the anatomical level of the brain,” said the publication. said Emily Kilroy, lead author of and former postdoctoral researcher in Aziz Zadeh’s lab. During the data collection period of the study.
“People are, of course, more than brain anatomy, but this degree of clarity and specificity at the anatomical level brings us one step closer to understanding the biological basis and expression of autism.”
Co-authors of this publication include Marzio Gerbella and Giacomo Rizzolatti, faculty members at the University of Parma (Italy), and Peter Molfese, staff scientist at the NIH National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, MD). USC imaging scientist Lei Cao, postdoctoral fellow girlfriend Laura Harrison, and USC Chan vocational science doctoral students Christiana Butera and Aditya Jayashankar were also co-authors.
Funding: This publication is the result of a 2015-2021 NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Research-funded $2.15 million project, Neurobiological Studies of Heterogeneous Social and Movement Disorders in ASD. Fundamentals” (R01 HD079432-01; PI: Aziz Zadeh).
About this Autism Research News
author: Lee Hopper
sauce: USC
contact: Lee Hopper – USC
image: image is public domain
Original research: Findings are displayed in: scientific report
