AUTHOR=Ning Mingmin , Li Cuicui , Gao Lei , Fan Jingyi 

TITLE=Core-Symptom-Defined Cortical Gyrification Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.619367

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.619367

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous disease that is characterized by abnormalities in social communication and interaction as well as repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. Structural brain imaging has identified significant cortical folding alterations in ASD, however, relatively less known is whether the core symptoms are related to neuroanatomical differences. In this study, we aimed to explore core-symptom anchored gyrification alterations and their developmental trajectories in ASD. We measured cortical vertex-wise gyrification index (GI) in 321 patients with ASD (aged 7-39 years) and 350 typically developing (TD) subjects (aged 6-33 years) across 8 sites from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I (ABIDE I) repository, and a longitudinal sample (14 ASD and 7 TD, age 9-14 years in baseline and 12-18 years in follow-up) from ABIDE II. Compared with TD, the general ASD patients exhibited a mixed pattern of both hypo- and hyper- and different developmental trajectories of gyrification. By parsing the ASD patients into three subgroups based on the sub-scores of the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) scale, we identified core-symptom specific alterations in the RSI, CA, and RRSB subgroups. We also showed atypical gyrification patterns and developmental trajectories in the subgroups. Furthermore, we conducted a meta-analysis to locate the core-symptom anchored brain regions (circuits). In summary, the current study shows that ASD is associated with abnormal cortical folding patterns. Core-symptom based classification can find more subtle changes in gyrification. These results suggest that cortical folding pattern encodes changes in symptom dimensions, which promotes the understanding of neuroanatomical basis, and clinical utility in ASD.