White matter impairment in the speech network of individuals with autism spectrum disorder [electronic resource]

• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 616.85 Miscellaneous diseases of nervous system and mental disorders
• Thông tin xuất bản: Washington, D.C. : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science ; Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2013
• Mô tả vật lý: Size: p. 234-241 : , digital, PDF file.
• Bộ sưu tập: Metadata
• ID: 261517
• Chủ đề: 1. 60 applied life sciences; 2. Asd; 3. Autism; 4. Communication; 5. Diffusion tensor imaging; 6. Neurosciences & neurology; 7. Speech; 8. Tractography

Tóm tắt

Impairments in language and communication are core features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and a substantial percentage of children with ASD do not develop speech. ASD is often characterized as a disorder of brain connectivity, and a number of studies have identified white matter impairments in affected individuals. The current study investigated white matter integrity in the speech network of high-functioning adults with ASD. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans were collected from 18 participants with ASD and 18 neurotypical participants. Probabilistic tractography was used to estimate the connection strength between ventral premotor cortex (vPMC), a cortical region responsible for speech motor planning, and five other cortical regions in the network of areas involved in speech production. We found a weaker connection between the left vPMC and the supplementary motor area in the ASD group. This pathway has been hypothesized to underlie the initiation of speech motor programs. Our results indicate that a key pathway in the speech production network is impaired in ASD, and that this impairment can occur even in the presence of normal language abilities. Therapies that result in normalization of this pathway may hold particular promise for improving speech output in ASD