Are schizophrenia, autistic, and obsessive spectrum disorders dissociable on the basis of neuroimaging morphological findings?: A voxel-based meta-analysis.
Schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SCZD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD) are considered as three separate psychiatric conditions with, supposedly, different brain alterations patterns. From a neuroimaging perspective, this meta-analytic study aimed to address whether this nosographical differentiation is actually supported by different brain patterns of gray matter (GM) or white matter (WM) morphological alterations. We explored two possibilities: (a) to find out whether GM alterations are specific for SCZD, ASD, and OCSD; and (b) to associate the identified brain alteration patterns with cognitive dysfunctions by means of an analysis of lesion decoding. Our analysis reveals that these psychiatric spectra do not present clear distinctive patterns of alterations; rather, they all tend to be distributed in two alteration clusters. Cluster 1, which is more specific for SCZD, includes the anterior insular, anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and frontopolar areas, which are parts of the cognitive control system. Cluster 2, which is more specific for OCSD, presents occipital, temporal, and parietal alteration patterns with the involvement of sensorimotor, premotor, visual, and lingual areas, thus forming a network that is more associated with the auditory-visual, auditory, premotor visual somatic functions. In turn, ASD appears to be uniformly distributed in the two clusters. The three spectra share a significant set of alterations. Our new approach promises to provide insight into the understanding of psychiatric conditions under the aspect of a common neurobiological substrate, possibly related to neuroinflammation during brain development. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1079-1095. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Franco
F
Cauda
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Tommaso
T
Costa
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Department of Science, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy.|Michael Trimble Psychiatric Research Group, University of Birmingham and BSMHFT, Birmingham, UK.
Andrea
A
Nani
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Department of Science, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy.
Luciano
L
Fava
Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Sara
S
Palermo
Adult Autism Center, Local Health Unit DSM ASL TO2, Turin, Italy.
Francesca
F
Bianco
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Sergio
S
Duca
GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.|Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Karina
K
Tatu
Adult Autism Center, Local Health Unit DSM ASL TO2, Turin, Italy.
Roberto
R
Keller
D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*
autism spectrum disorder; brain alterations; core alterations; neuroimaging; obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder; psychiatric categories; schizophrenia spectrum disorder