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Cortical thickness abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder

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Abstract

The pathological mechanism of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains unclear. Nowadays, surface-based morphometry (SBM) based on structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) techniques have reported cortical thickness (CT) variations in ASD. However, the findings were inconsistent and heterogeneous. This current meta-analysis conducted a whole-brain vertex-wise coordinate‐based meta‐analysis (CBMA) on CT studies to explore the most noticeable and robust CT changes in ASD individuals by applying the seed-based d mapping (SDM) program. A total of 26 investigations comprised 27 datasets were included, containing 1,635 subjects with ASD and 1470 HC, along with 94 coordinates. Individuals with ASD exhibited significantly altered CT in several regions compared to HC, including four clusters with thicker CT in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG.R), the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG.L), the left anterior cingulate/paracingulate gyri, the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG.R, medial orbital parts), as well as three clusters with cortical thinning including the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG.L), the right precentral gyrus (PCG.R) and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG.L). Adults with ASD only demonstrated CT thinning in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG.R), revealed by subgroup meta-analyses. Meta-regression analyses found that CT in STG.R was positively correlated with age. Meanwhile, CT in MFG.L and PHG.L had negative correlations with the age of ASD individuals. These results suggested a complicated and atypical cortical development trajectory in ASD, and would provide a deeper understanding of the neural mechanism underlying the cortical morphology in ASD.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Plan of Shandong Province (202003061210), the Key Research and Development Plan of Jining City (2021YXNS024), the Cultivation Plan of High-level Scientific Research Projects of Jining Medical University (JYGC2021KJ006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81901358), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019BH001 and ZR2021YQ55), the Young Taishan Scholars of Shandong Province (tsqn201909146), the Postgraduate Education and Teaching Reform Research Project of Shandong Province (SDYJG19212), and the Supporting Fund for Teachers’ Research of Jining Medical University (600903001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Shandong Daizhuang Hospital, Jining, China

    Liancheng Shen

  2. Department of Pharmacy, Shandong Daizhuang Hospital, Jining, China

    Junqing Zhang

  3. School of Mental Health, Jining Medical University, Jining, China

    Shiran Fan, Hao Yu, Fangfang Xu & Cong Zhou

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Xiamen Xianyue Hospital, Xiamen, China

    Liangliang Ping

  5. Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China

    Yuqi Cheng & Xiufeng Xu

  6. School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, China

    Chunyan Yang

  7. Department of Psychology, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining, China

    Cong Zhou

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  1. Liancheng Shen
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Contributions

Liancheng Shen: Investigation, formal analysis, data curation, writing-original draft. Junqing Zhang: Methodology, visualization, investigation. Shiran Fan: Methodology, validation. Liangliang Ping: Software, validation. Hao Yu: Project administration, supervision. Fangfang Xu: Validation. Yuqi Cheng: Conceptualization, review & editing. Xiufeng Xu: Conceptualization, review & editing. Chunyan Yang: Writing - review & editing, supervision. Cong Zhou: Conceptualization, writing-review & editing, visualization. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chunyan Yang or Cong Zhou.

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Shen, L., Zhang, J., Fan, S. et al. Cortical thickness abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33, 65–77 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02133-0

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