Pote, I;
Wang, S;
Sethna, V;
Blasi, A;
Daly, E;
Kuklisova-Murgasova, M;
Lloyd-Fox, S;
... BASIS Team; + view all
(2019)
Familial risk of autism alters subcortical and cerebellar brain anatomy in infants and predicts the emergence of repetitive behaviors in early childhood.
Autism Research
10.1002/aur.2083.
(In press).
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Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition, and infant siblings of children with ASD are at a higher risk of developing autistic traits or an ASD diagnosis, when compared to those with typically developing siblings. Reports of differences in brain anatomy and function in high-risk infants which predict later autistic behaviors are emerging, but although cerebellar and subcortical brain regions have been frequently implicated in ASD, no high-risk study has examined these regions. Therefore, in this study, we compared regional MRI volumes across the whole brain in 4-6-month-old infants with (high-risk, n = 24) and without (low-risk, n = 26) a sibling with ASD. Within the high-risk group, we also examined whether any regional differences observed were associated with autistic behaviors at 36 months. We found that high-risk infants had significantly larger cerebellar and subcortical volumes at 4-6-months of age, relative to low-risk infants; and that larger volumes in high-risk infants were linked to more repetitive behaviors at 36 months. Our preliminary observations require replication in longitudinal studies of larger samples. If correct, they suggest that the early subcortex and cerebellum volumes may be predictive biomarkers for childhood repetitive behaviors. Autism Res 2019. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published byWiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with a family history of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of ASD and related developmental difficulties. This study revealed that 4-6-month-old infants at high-risk of ASD have larger cerebellum and subcortical volumes than low-risk infants, and that larger volumes in high-risk infants are associated with more repetitive behaviors in childhood.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Familial risk of autism alters subcortical and cerebellar brain anatomy in infants and predicts the emergence of repetitive behaviors in early childhood |
Location: | United States |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1002/aur.2083 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2083 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Autism spectrum disorder, cerebellum, familial risk, infants, magnetic resonance imaging-structural, mother-infant interaction, subcortex |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Med Phys and Biomedical Eng |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10071322 |




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