title: Increased gray-matter volume in medication-naive high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To establish whether high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have enlarged brains in later childhood, and if so, whether this enlargement is confined to the gray and/or to the white matter and whether it is global or more prominent in specific brain regions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Brain MRI scans were acquired from 21 medication-naive, high-functioning children with ASD between 7 and 15 years of age and 21 comparison subjects matched for gender, age, IQ, height, weight, handedness, and parental education, but not pubertal status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients showed a significant increase of 6% in intracranium, total brain, cerebral gray matter, cerebellum, and of more than 40% in lateral and third ventricles compared to controls. The cortical gray-matter volume was evenly affected in all lobes. After correction for brain volume, ventricular volumes remained significantly larger in patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High-functioning children with ASD showed a global increase in gray-matter, but not white-matter and cerebellar volume, proportional to the increase in brain volume, and a disproportional increase in ventricular volumes, still present after correction for brain volume. Advanced pubertal development in the patients compared to the age-matched controls may have contributed to the findings reported in the present study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. s.palmen@azu.nl
authors.forename: Saskia J M C
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Palmen
authors.forename: Hilleke E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Hulshoff Pol
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kemner
authors.forename: Hugo G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Schnack
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durston
authors.forename: Bertine E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Lahuis
authors.forename: René S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Van Engeland
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology; D012016:Reference Values; D013223:Statistics as Topic