ArticleAutism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research2020
Reduced White Matter Integrity and Deficits in Neuropsychological Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Article in Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural dysfunctions associated with atypical memory in ASD: an ALE meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Cognitive and brain morphological deviations in middle-to-old aged autistic adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Slower Processing Speed in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-analytic Investigation of Time-Based Tasks.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Pooled it
- Postnatal maturation of putamen microstructure accompanies topographic white matter connectivity and altered circuits in autism.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Myelin, white matter, and social deficits in autism spectrum disorder.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Widespread alterations in white matter microstructure in autism: A multilevel meta-analysis.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from Genetic, Biochemical, and Neuroimaging Approaches.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Autistic Trait Level and Reaction Time in Older Adults: The Influence of Sex and Task upon Study Outcome.Autism in adulthood · 2026Article
- Mapping along-tract commissural and association white matter microstructural differences in autistic children and young adults.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Age-related differences in axon pruning and myelination may alter neural signaling in autism spectrum disorder.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Widespread alterations in white matter microstructure in autism: A multilevel meta-analysis.Research square · 2025Article
- Exploring the Autistic Brain: A Systematic Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies on Neural Connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Altered white matter connectivity is linked to language abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder: An automated fiber quantification study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Alterations in the white matter fiber tracts of preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder: an automated fiber quantification study.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- STDCformer: Spatial-temporal dual-path cross-attention model for fMRI-based autism spectrum disorder identification.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Corpus callosum organization and its implication to core and co-occurring symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Brain structure & function · 2023Article
- Tract- and gray matter- based spatial statistics show white matter and gray matter microstructural differences in autistic males.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Brain white matter microstructure abnormalities in children with optimal outcome from autism: a four-year follow-up study.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Using tissue microstructure and multimodal MRI to parse the phenotypic heterogeneity and cellular basis of autism spectrum disorder.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2022Article
- Can Autism Be Diagnosed with Artificial Intelligence? A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently viewed as a disorder of cortical systems connectivity, with a heavy emphasis being on the structural integrity of white matter tracts. However, the majority of the literature to date has focused on children with ASD. Understanding the integrity of white matter tracts in adults may help reveal the nature of ASD pathology in adulthood and the potential contributors to cognitive impairment. This study examined white matter water diffusion using diffusion tensor imaging in relation to neuropsychological measures of cognition in a sample of 45 adults with ASD compared to 20 age, gender, and full-scale-IQ-matched healthy volunteers. Tract-based spatial statistics were used to assess differences in diffusion along white matter tracts between groups using permutation testing. The following neuropsychological measures of cognition were assessed: processing speed, attention vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. Results indicated that fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly reduced in adults with ASD in the anterior thalamic radiation (P = 0.022) and the right cingulum (P = 0.008). All neuropsychological measures were worse in the ASD group, but none of the measures significantly correlated with reduced FA in either tract in the adults with ASD or in the healthy volunteers. Together, this indicates that the tracts that are the most impacted in autism may not be (at least directly) responsible for the behavioral deficits in ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 702-714. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: White matter tracts are the data cables in the brain that efficiently transfer information, and damage to these tracts could be the cause for the abnormal behaviors that are associated with autism. We found that two long-range tracts (the anterior thalamic radiation and the cingulum) were both impaired in autism but were not directly related to the impairments in behavior. This suggests that the abnormal tracts and behavior are the effects of another underlying mechanism.
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