TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of age, diagnosis, and their interaction on vertex-based measures of cortical thickness and surface area in autism spectrum disorder
AU - Ecker, C
AU - Shahidiani, A
AU - Feng, Y
AU - Daly, E
AU - Murphy, C
AU - D'Almeida, V
AU - Deoni, S
AU - Williams, S C
AU - Gillan, N
AU - Gudbrandsen, M
AU - Wichers, R
AU - Andrews, D
AU - Van Hemert, L
AU - Murphy, D G M
PY - 2014/4/22
Y1 - 2014/4/22
N2 - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that is accompanied by an atypical development of brain maturation. So far, brain development has mainly been studied during early childhood in ASD, and using measures of total or lobular brain volume. However, cortical volumetric measures are a product of two distinct biological neuroanatomical features, cortical thickness, and surface area, which most likely also have different neurodevelopmental trajectories in ASD. Here, we therefore examined age-related differences in cortical thickness and surface area in a cross-sectional sample of 77 male individuals with ASD ranging from 7 to 25 years of age, and 77 male neurotypical controls matched for age and FSIQ. Surface-based measures were analyzed using a general linear model (GLM) including linear, quadratic, and cubic age terms, as well as their interactions with the main effect of group. When controlling for the effects of age, individuals with ASD had spatially distributed reductions in cortical thickness relative to controls, particularly in fronto-temporal regions, and also showed significantly reduced surface area in the prefrontal cortex and the anterior temporal lobe. We also observed significant group × age interactions for both measures. However, while cortical thickness was best predicted by a quadratic age term, the neurodevelopmental trajectory for measures of surface area was mostly linear. Our findings suggest that ASD is accompanied by age-related and region-specific reductions in cortical thickness and surface area during childhood and early adulthood. Thus, differences in the neurodevelopmental trajectory of maturation for both measures need to be taken into account when interpreting between-group differences overall.
AB - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that is accompanied by an atypical development of brain maturation. So far, brain development has mainly been studied during early childhood in ASD, and using measures of total or lobular brain volume. However, cortical volumetric measures are a product of two distinct biological neuroanatomical features, cortical thickness, and surface area, which most likely also have different neurodevelopmental trajectories in ASD. Here, we therefore examined age-related differences in cortical thickness and surface area in a cross-sectional sample of 77 male individuals with ASD ranging from 7 to 25 years of age, and 77 male neurotypical controls matched for age and FSIQ. Surface-based measures were analyzed using a general linear model (GLM) including linear, quadratic, and cubic age terms, as well as their interactions with the main effect of group. When controlling for the effects of age, individuals with ASD had spatially distributed reductions in cortical thickness relative to controls, particularly in fronto-temporal regions, and also showed significantly reduced surface area in the prefrontal cortex and the anterior temporal lobe. We also observed significant group × age interactions for both measures. However, while cortical thickness was best predicted by a quadratic age term, the neurodevelopmental trajectory for measures of surface area was mostly linear. Our findings suggest that ASD is accompanied by age-related and region-specific reductions in cortical thickness and surface area during childhood and early adulthood. Thus, differences in the neurodevelopmental trajectory of maturation for both measures need to be taken into account when interpreting between-group differences overall.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Aging
KW - Cerebral Cortex/growth & development
KW - Child
KW - Child Development Disorders, Pervasive/pathology
KW - Cross-Sectional Studies
KW - Humans
KW - Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
KW - Male
KW - Neuropsychological Tests
KW - Organ Size
KW - Young Adult
U2 - 10.1007/s00702-014-1207-1
DO - 10.1007/s00702-014-1207-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 24752753
SN - 0300-9564
VL - 121
SP - 1157
EP - 1170
JO - Journal of Neural Transmission
JF - Journal of Neural Transmission
IS - 9
ER -