title: No significant brain volume decreases or increases in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and above average intelligence: a voxel-based morphometric study.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is increasingly being recognized as an important issue in adult psychiatry and psychotherapy. High intelligence indicates overall good brain functioning and might thus present a particularly good opportunity to study possible cerebral correlates of core autistic features in terms of impaired social cognition, communication skills, the need for routines, and circumscribed interests. Anatomical MRI data sets for 30 highly intelligent patients with high-functioning autism and 30 pairwise-matched control subjects were acquired and analyzed with voxel-based morphometry. The gray matter volume of the pairwise-matched patients and the controls did not differ significantly. When correcting for total brain volume influences, the patients with ASD exhibited smaller left superior frontal volumes on a trend level. Heterogeneous volumetric findings in earlier studies might partly be explained by study samples biased by a high inclusion rate of secondary forms of ASD, which often go along with neuronal abnormalities. Including only patients with high IQ scores might have decreased the influence of secondary forms of ASD and might explain the absence of significant volumetric differences between the patients and the controls in this study.
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; Universitäres Zentrum Autismus Spektrum, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Riedel
authors: Freiburg Brain Imaging, University Medical Center Freiburg, Breisacher Straße 64, 79106 Freiburg, Germany; Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-University, 79104 Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: simon.maier@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Maier
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Melanie
authors: M
authors: Ulbrich
authors: Department for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 8, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Monica
authors: M
authors: Biscaldi
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; Universitäres Zentrum Autismus Spektrum, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Dieter
authors: D
authors: Ebert
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; Universitäres Zentrum Autismus Spektrum, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Fangmeier
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Evgeniy
authors: E
authors: Perlov
authors: Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; Universitäres Zentrum Autismus Spektrum, Clinic for Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Hauptstraße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging, University Medical Center Freiburg, Breisacher Straße 64, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors: Ludger
authors: L
authors: Tebartz van Elst
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Asperger׳s syndrome; Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); High IQ; Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)