22092
Longitudinal, Voxel-Based Analysis of White Matter Contributions to Processing Speed in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Objectives: The objective of this study is to use a voxel-based, longitudinal approach to examine the white matter tracts in the brain that are related to processing speed in individuals with autism and individuals with typical development.
Methods: Fifty-one males with typical development and 70 males with ASD (ages 6.4 to 40.6 years old) underwent longitudinal processing speed assessments and longitudinal DTI scanning on Siemens 3T scanner at four points across a 10-year period of time (DW, single-shot, spin-echo EPI, b=1000, 12 non-collinear directions, 4 averages). Groups were matched on age (p = .48). Voxel-based, linear mixed-effects analyses examined fractional anisotropy as a function of group and processing speed, controlling for age, head motion, and a head coil replacement (between Times 1 and 2).
Results: In both the ASD and typically developing groups, the results suggested that processing speed was significantly related with a number of white matter areas, including the bilateral posterior medial parietal cortex, the tip of the anterior genu/cingulate, left temporal parietal junction, and the right prefrontal white matter (p< .05, FDR corrected). However, a group x processing speed interaction demonstrated that the group with ASD had weaker correlations between these areas and processing speed than the group with typical development (See Figure 1, p< .05, FDR corrected).
Conclusions: We found that processing speed in both groups was related to the white matter microstructure of areas previously reported to be implicated in processing speed (i.e., the bilateral posterior medial parietal cortices, the tip of the genu of the corpus callosum/anterior cingulate, the temporal white matter, and prefrontal white matter) (Turken et al., 2008). However, there were significantly weaker correlations in the ASD group between these white matter areas and processing speed, suggesting that these areas may not contribute as much to processing speed in the ASD group as in the typically developing group. At the group level, these data imply that white matter contributions to processing speed are similar in both groups, albeit these relations were weaker in ASD, suggesting compensatory mechanisms more inter-individual variability in ASD.
See more of: Brain Structure (MRI, neuropathology)