title: Disorder-Specific Alteration in White Matter Structural Property in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder Relative to Adults With ADHD and Adult Controls.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not only often comorbid but also overlapped in behavioral and cognitive abnormalities. Little is known about whether these shared phenotypes are based on common or different underlying neuropathologies. Therefore, this study aims to examine the disorder-specific alterations in white matter (WM) structural property.
  
  
  
  The three comparison groups included 23 male adults with ASD (21.4 ± 3.1 years), 32 male adults with ADHD (23.4 ± 3.3 years), and 29 age-matched healthy male controls (22.4 ± 3.3 years). After acquisition of the diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), whole brain tractography was reconstructed by a tract-based automatic analysis. Generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) values were computed to indicate tract-specific WM property with adjusted P value < 0.05 for false discovery rate correction.
  
  
  
  Post hoc analyses revealed that men with ASD exhibited significant lower GFA values than men with ADHD and male controls in six identified fiber tracts: the right arcuate fasciculus, right cingulum (hippocampal part), anterior commissure, and three callosal fibers (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex part, precentral part, superior temporal part). There was no significant difference in the GFA values of any of the fiber tracts between men with ADHD and controls. In men with ASD, the GFA values of the right arcuate fasciculus and right cingulum (hippocampal part) were negatively associated with autistic social-deficit symptoms, and the anterior commissure GFA value was positively correlated with intelligence.
  
  
  
  This study highlights the disorder-specific alteration of the microstructural property of WM tracts in male adults with ASD. Hum Brain Mapp 38:384-395, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Psychiatry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Huey-Ling
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Device and Imaging, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Jen
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsiang-Yuan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Device and Imaging, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Yih Isaac
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Susan Shur-Fen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014175:Translating; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; autism spectrum disorder; diffusion spectrum imaging; tractography; white matter