ArticleBMC psychiatry2019
Anomalies in uncinate fasciculus development and social defects in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sleep During Pregnancy and Offspring Outcomes From Infancy to Childhood: A Systematic Review.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Overall prognosis of preschool autism spectrum disorder diagnoses.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring the Autistic Brain: A Systematic Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies on Neural Connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Uncinate fasciculus microstructural organisation and emotion recognition in schizophrenia: controlling for hit rate bias.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Social Health Is Associated With Tract-Specific Brain White Matter Microstructure in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Maternal depressive symptoms, neonatal white matter, and toddler social-emotional development.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Structural connectivity in ventral language pathways characterizes non-verbal autism.Brain structure & function · 2022Article
- MCP-1 Signaling Disrupts Social Behavior by Modulating Brain Volumetric Changes and Microglia Morphology.Molecular neurobiology · 2022Article
- Evolution of the Autism Literature and the Influence of Parents: A Scientific Mapping in Web of Science.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Adverse Childhood Experience Is Associated With Disrupted White Matter Integrity in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Association of Reduced Tract Integrity with Social Communication Deficits in Preschool Autism Children: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2021Article
- Trends in Autism Research in the Field of Education in Web of Science: A Bibliometric Study.Brain sciences · 2020Review
- Documentary Analysis of the Scientific Literature on Autism and Technology in Web of Science.Brain sciences · 2020Review
- Role of Oligodendrocytes and Myelin in the Pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Brain sciences · 2020Review
- Tractography-Based Analysis of Morphological and Anatomical Characteristics of the Uncinate Fasciculus in Human Brains.Brain sciences · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have social interaction deficits and difficulties in emotional regulation. The neural substrates for these socio-affective deficits are not yet clear, but one potential candidate is maldevelopment of the uncinate fasciculus (UF), a white matter tract thought to be involved in socio-affective processing. However, the developmental trajectory of the UF in young children with social interaction deficits has not been examined. The present study was designed to describe the developmental growth trajectory of the UF and the relationships between UF development and social deficits in ASD.
methodsEigenvalues of the UF were measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based tractography in 37 children with ASD and 27 matched 2-3-year-old subjects with developmental delay (DD) at baseline (time 1) and at 2-year follow-up (time 2). Growth rates of the UF were compared between groups and associations with social deficit scores according to the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) analyzed by Pearson's correlations.
resultsAt time 1, axial diffusivity (AD) of the left UF was significantly larger in the ASD group than the DD group. At time 2, left UF fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly higher and radial diffusivity (RD) significantly lower in the ASD group than the DD group. The rate of UF growth during this 2-year interval was faster in children with ASD than DD. Significant negative correlations were found between the rise in ADI-R social deficit measures and both right UF RD and left UF mean diffusivity (MD).
conclusionsYoung children with ASD demonstrate UF overgrowth during the 2-year development period between 2 and 3 and 4-5 years of age, and this white matter abnormality is directly associated with the progression of social deficits.
trial registrationWorld Health Organization class I registered international clinical trial platform, ChiCTR-ROC-17012877.
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