ArticleEuropean psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists2021
Associations of subclinical autistic-like traits with brain structural variation using diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry.
Article in European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perinatal brain growth and autistic traits in toddlers.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Profiling brain morphology for autism spectrum disorder with two cross-culture large-scale consortia.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Sex-specific patterns in social visual attention among individuals with autistic traits.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Superior temporal sulcus folding, functional network connectivity, and autistic-like traits in a non-clinical population.Molecular autism · 2024Article
- Psychopathic and autistic traits differentially influence the neural mechanisms of social cognition from communication signals.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Autistic Traits are Associated with Less Precise Perceptual Integration of Face Identity.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2022Article
- The Directionality of Fronto-Posterior Brain Connectivity Is Associated with the Degree of Individual Autistic Traits.Brain sciences · 2021Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPrevious case-control studies of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have identified altered brain structure such as altered frontal and temporal cortex volumes, or decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) within the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in patients. It remains unclear whether subclinical autistic-like traits might also be related to variation in these brain structures.
methodsIn this study, we analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 250 psychiatrically healthy subjects phenotyped for subclinical autistic-like traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). For data analysis, we used voxel-based morphometry of T1-MRIs (Computational Anatomy Toolbox) and tract-based spatial statistics for diffusion tensor imaging data.
resultsAQ attention switching subscale correlated negatively with FA values in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus as well as the bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Higher AQ attention switching subscale scores were associated with increased mean diffusivity and radial diffusivity values in the uncinate fasciculus, while axial diffusivity values within this tract show a negative correlation. AQ attention to detail subscale correlated positively with gray matter volume in the right pre- and postcentral gyrus.
conclusionsWe demonstrate that individuals with higher levels of autism-spectrum-like features show decreased white matter integrity in tracts associated with higher-level visual processing and increased cortical volume in areas linked to movement sequencing and working memory. Our results resemble regional brain structure alterations found in individuals with ASD. This offers opportunities to further understand the etiology and pathogenesis of the disorder and shows a subclinical continuum perspective.
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