3～8岁孤独症谱系障碍男童脑灰质体积的病例对照研究

目的比较3~8岁孤独症谱系障碍(ASD)男童和正常发育男童的大脑灰质体积,为ASD儿童异常行为的神经机制提供脑影像学证据。方法收集31例ASD男童和31例正常发育男童的全脑3DT1结构图像,利用基于体素的形态学测量(VBM)方法计算两组被试大脑各区域的灰质体积,并通过独立样本t检验结合Alphasim多重检验校正发现两组儿童灰质体积存在差异的脑区,将差异区域的灰质体积与临床表型的评估结果进行相关分析。结果与对照组相比,ASD儿童存在一个灰质体积显著增大的团块(体素P0.001,团块大小=2 981,Alphasim矫正),位于左侧颞上回(x,y,z:-50.5,-9.5,7.5)和左侧中央后回(x,y,z:-61.5,-7.5,31.5)。异常脑区的灰质体积与ADOS、ADI-R和ABC总分及各维度得分并均未发现显著关联(P0.05)。结论 3~8岁ASD男童左侧颞上回和中央后回灰质体积增大,可作为ASD儿童沟通障碍和感觉异常客观的影像学证据。

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

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.