SynthesisBiological psychiatry2013
Compared to what? Early brain overgrowth in autism and the perils of population norms.
Synthesis in Biological psychiatry, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A meta-analytic investigation of grey matter differences in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2022Pooled it
- Autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia: An updated conceptual review.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative meta-analyses of brain structural and functional abnormalities during cognitive control in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.Psychological medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Recommendations for Practice and Research.Pediatrics · 2015Guideline
- Article
- Subcortical brain volume variations in autistic individuals across the lifespan.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Subgrouping autism and ADHD based on structural MRI population modelling centiles.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Article
- Abnormal Functional Connectivity of the Primary Sensory Network in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Sex Differences, Early Overdevelopment, and Clinical Significance.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Social and Communication Development in Infants with Isolated Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.Journal of pediatrics. Clinical practice · 2024Article
- Metabolic network analysis of pre-ASD newborns and 5-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Canada population norms for the EQ-5D-5L.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Article
- Candidate biomarkers in psychiatric disorders: state of the field.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
- APPlications of amyloid-β precursor protein metabolites in macrocephaly and autism spectrum disorder.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Review
- Adjusting for allometric scaling in ABIDE I challenges subcortical volume differences in autism spectrum disorder.Human brain mapping · 2020Article
- Neuropsychiatric "Comorbidity" as Causal Influence in Autism.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2020Review
- Novel Contribution of Secreted Amyloid-β Precursor Protein to White Matter Brain Enlargement in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
- Extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid in high-risk and normal-risk children with autism aged 2-4 years: a case-control study.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2018Article
- Autism spectrum disorder.Lancet (London, England) · 2018Review
- The journey to autism: Insights from neuroimaging studies of infants and toddlers.Development and psychopathology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEarly brain overgrowth (EBO) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is among the best replicated biological associations in psychiatry. Most positive reports have compared head circumference (HC) in ASD (an excellent proxy for early brain size) with well-known reference norms. We sought to reappraise evidence for the EBO hypothesis given 1) the recent proliferation of longitudinal HC studies in ASD, and 2) emerging reports that several of the reference norms used to define EBO in ASD may be biased toward detecting HC overgrowth in contemporary samples of healthy children.
methodsSystematic review of all published HC studies in children with ASD. Comparison of 330 longitudinally gathered HC measures between birth and 18 months from male children with autism (n = 35) and typically developing control subjects (n = 22).
resultsIn systematic review, comparisons with locally recruited control subjects were significantly less likely to identify EBO in ASD than norm-based studies (p < .001). Through systematic review and analysis of new data, we replicate seminal reports of EBO in ASD relative to classical HC norms but show that this overgrowth relative to norms is mimicked by patterns of HC growth age in a large contemporary community-based sample of US children (n ~ 75,000). Controlling for known HC norm biases leaves inconsistent support for a subtle, later emerging and subgroup specific pattern of EBO in clinically ascertained ASD versus community control subjects.
conclusionsThe best-replicated aspects of EBO reflect generalizable HC norm biases rather than disease-specific biomarkers. The potential HC norm biases we detail are not specific to ASD research but apply throughout clinical and academic medicine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.