Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Corpus Callosum Volumes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Sex-Associated Differences

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between sex and corpus callosum (CC) volume in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 2–4 years. This prospective study included 50 children with ASD and 50 typically developing (TD) children aged 2–4 years. Midsagittal slices of the CCs of the participants were divided into five subregions using FreeSurfer software. The PMCC, AMCC and TCC volumes were significantly higher in ASD participants than in TD participants, and results were significant in females with ASD rather than in males with ASD (all P < 0.05). In toddlers with ASD, the CC volumes were increased and more pronounced in females than in males. This could be due to overgrowth of axons or/and axonal pruning disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allouh, M. Z., Al Barbarawi, M. M., Ali, H. A., Mustafa, A. G., & Alomari, S. O. (2020). Morphometric analysis of the corpus callosum according to age and sex in middle eastern Arabs: Racial comparisons and clinical correlations to autism spectrum disorder. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 14, 30.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, D. S., Lee, J. K., Solomon, M., Rogers, S. J., Amaral, D. G., & Nordahl, C. W. (2019). A diffusion-weighted imaging tract-based spatial statistics study of autism spectrum disorder in preschool-aged children. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 11(1), 32.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ardekani, B. A., Figarsky, K., & Sidtis, J. J. (2013). Sexual dimorphism in the human corpus callosum: An MRI study using the OASIS brain database. Cerebral Cortex, 23(10), 2514–2520.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baio, J., Wiggins, L., Christensen, D. L., Maenner, M. J., Daniels, J., Warren, Z., Kurzius-Spencer, M., Zahorodny, W., Rosenberg, C. R., White, T., Durkin, M. S., Imm, P., Nikolaou, L., Yeargin-Allsopp, M., Lee, L.-C., Harrington, R., Lopez, M., Fitzgerald, R. T., Hewitt, A., … Dowling, N. F. (2018). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2014. MMWR. Surveillance Summaries, 67(6), 1–23.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Boger-Megiddo, I., Shaw, D. W. W., Friedman, S. D., Sparks, B. F., Artru, A. A., Giedd, J. N., Dawson, G., & Dager, S. R. (2006). Corpus callosum morphometrics in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(6), 733–739.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Calderoni, S., Bellani, M., Hardan, A. Y., Muratori, F., & Brambilla, P. (2014). Basal ganglia and restricted and repetitive behaviours in autism spectrum disorders: Current status and future perspectives. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 23(3), 235–238.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Delacoste-Utamsing, C., & Holloway, R. L. (1982). Sexual dimorphism in the human corpus callosum. Science, 216(4553), 1431–1432.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, A. P., & Basson, M. A. (2017). The neuroanatomy of autism—A developmental perspective. Journal of Anatomy, 230(1), 4–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Erus, G., Battapady, H., Satterthwaite, T. D., Hakonarson, H., Gur, R. E., Davatzikos, C., & Gur, R. C. (2015). Imaging patterns of brain development and their relationship to cognition. Cerebral Cortex, 25(6), 1676–1684.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischl, B. (2012). FreeSurfer. NeuroImage, 62(2), 774–781.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frazier, T. W., & Hardan, A. Y. (2009). A meta-analysis of the corpus callosum in autism. Biological Psychiatry, 66(10), 935–941.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Giuliano, A., Saviozzi, I., Brambilla, P., Muratori, F., Retico, A., & Calderoni, S. (2018). The effect of age, sex and clinical features on the volume of corpus callosum in pre-schoolers with autism spectrum disorder: A case-control study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 47(6), 568–578.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, H., Peng, Y., Hu, Z., Li, Y., Xun, G., Ou, J., Sun, L., Xiong, Z., Liu, Y., Wang, T., Chen, J., Xia, L., Bai, T., Shen, Y., Tian, Q., Hu, Y., Shen, L., Zhao, R., Zhang, X., … Xia, K. (2017). Genome-wide copy number variation analysis in a Chinese autism spectrum disorder cohort. Scientific Reports, 7, 44155.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hardan, A. Y., Pabalan, M., Gupta, N., Bansal, R., Melhem, N. M., Fedorov, S., Keshavan, M. S., & Minshew, N. J. (2009). Corpus callosum volume in children with autism. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 174(1), 57–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hasan, K. M., Kamali, A., Iftikhar, A., Kramer, L. A., Papanicolaou, A. C., Fletcher, J. M., & Ewing-Cobbs, L. (2009). Diffusion tensor tractography quantification of the human corpus callosum fiber pathways across the lifespan. Brain Research, 1249, 91–100.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hazlett, H. C., Gu, H., Munsell, B. C., Kim, S. H., Styner, M., Wolff, J. J., Elison, J. T., Swanson, M. R., Zhu, H., Botteron, K. N., Louis Collins, D., Constantino, J. N., Dager, S. R., Estes, A. M., Evans, A. C., Fonov, V. S., Gerig, G., Kostopoulos, P., McKinstry, R. C., … Piven, J. (2017). Early brain development in infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Nature, 542(7641), 348–351.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hofer, S., & Frahm, J. (2006). Topography of the human corpus callosum revisited–comprehensive fiber tractography using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. NeuroImage, 32(3), 989–994.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jäncke, L., Mérillat, S., Liem, F., & Hänggi, J. (2015). Brain size, sex, and the aging brain. Human Brain Mapping, 36(1), 150–169.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Just, M. A., Cherkassky, V. L., Keller, T. A., Kana, R. K., & Minshew, N. J. (2007). Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: Evidence from an FMRI study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cerebral Cortex, 17(4), 951–961.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kana, R. K., Keller, T. A., Cherkassky, V. L., Minshew, N. J., & Just, M. A. (2006). Sentence comprehension in autism: Thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity. Brain, 129(Pt 9), 2484–2493.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kucharsky, R. H., Alter, R., Sojoudi, S., Ardekani, B. A., Kuzniecky, R., & Pardoe, H. R. (2015). Corpus callosum area and brain volume in autism spectrum disorder: Quantitative analysis of structural MRI from the ABIDE database. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(10), 3107–3114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamantia, A. S., & Rakic, P. (1990). Axon overproduction and elimination in the corpus callosum of the developing rhesus monkey. Journal of Neuroscience, 10(7), 2156–2175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, A., Beggiato, A., Bourgeron, T., & Toro, R. (2015). Neuroanatomical diversity of corpus callosum and brain volume in autism: Meta-analysis, analysis of the autism brain imaging data exchange project, and simulation. Biological Psychiatry, 78(2), 126–134.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loomba, N., Beckerson, M. E., Ammons, C. J., Maximo, J. O., Kana, R. K., et al. (2021). Corpus callosum size and homotopic connectivity in Autism spectrum disorder. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, 313, 111301.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maenner, M. J., Shaw, K. A., Baio, J., Washington, A., Patrick, M., DiRienzo, M., Christensen, D. L., Wiggins, L. D., Pettygrove, S., Andrews, J. G., Lopez, M., Hudson, A., Baroud, T., Schwenk, Y., White, T., Rosenberg, C. R., Lee, L.-C., Harrington, R. A., Huston, M., & Dietz, P. M. (2020). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2016. MMWR. Surveillance Summaries, 69(4), 1–12.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Marquand, A. F., Rezek, I., Buitelaar, J., & Beckmann, C. F. (2016). Understanding heterogeneity in clinical cohorts using normative models: beyond case-control studies. Biological Psychiatry, 80(7), 552–561.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, T. N., Free, S. L., Merschhemke, M., Lemieux, L., Sisodiya, S. M., & Shorvon, S. D. (2003). Reliable callosal measurement: Population normative data confirm sex-related differences. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 24(3), 410–418.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mostofsky, S. H., Powell, S. K., Simmonds, D. J., Goldberg, M. C., Caffo, B., & Pekar, J. J. (2009). Decreased connectivity and cerebellar activity in autism during motor task performance. Brain, 132(Pt 9), 2413–2425.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nordahl, C. W., Iosif, A.-M., Young, G. S., Perry, L. M., Dougherty, R., Lee, A., Li, D., Buonocore, M. H., Simon, T., Rogers, S., Wandell, B., & Amaral, D. G. (2015). Sex differences in the corpus callosum in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder. Molecular Autism, 6, 26.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Olivares, R., Montiel, J., & Aboitiz, F. (2001). Species differences and similarities in the fine structure of the mammalian corpus callosum. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 57(2), 98–105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pardoe, H. R., Kucharsky, H. R., & Kuzniecky, R. (2016). Motion and morphometry in clinical and nonclinical populations. NeuroImage, 135, 177–185.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pozzilli, C., Bastianello, S., Bozzao, A., Pierallini, A., Giubilei, F., Argentino, C., & Bozzao, L. (1994). No differences in corpus callosum size by sex and aging. A quantitative study using magnetic resonance imaging. Journal of Neuroimaging, 4(4), 218–221.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Qin, B., Wang, L., Zhang, Y., Cai, J., Chen, J., & Li, T. (2018). Enhanced topological network efficiency in preschool autism spectrum disorder: A diffusion tensor imaging study. Front Psychiatry, 9, 278.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schaer, M., Kochalka, J., Padmanabhan, A., Supekar, K., & Menon, V. (2015). Sex differences in cortical volume and gyrification in autism. Molecular Autism, 6, 42.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schmied, A., Soda, T., Gerig, G., Styner, M., Swanson, M. R., Elison, J. T., Shen, M. D., McKinstry, R. C., Pruett, J. R., Jr., Botteron, K. N., Estes, A. M., Dager, S. R., Hazlett, H. C., Schultz, R. T., Piven, J., Wolff, J. J., IBIS Network. (2020). Sex differences associated with corpus callosum development in human infants: A longitudinal multimodal imaging study. NeuroImage, 215, 116821.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stanfield, A. C., McIntosh, A. M., Spencer, M. D., Philip, R., Gaur, S., & Lawrie, S. M. (2008). Towards a neuroanatomy of autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies. European Psychiatry, 23(4), 289–299.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vidal, C. N., Nicolson, R., DeVito, T. J., Hayashi, K. M., Geaga, J. A., Drost, D. J., Williamson, P. C., Rajakumar, N., Sui, Y., Dutton, R. A., Toga, A. W., & Thompson, P. M. (2006). Mapping corpus callosum deficits in autism: An index of aberrant cortical connectivity. Biological Psychiatry, 60(3), 218–225.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wakefield, J. C. (2016). Diagnostic issues and controversies in DSM-5: return of the false positives problem. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, 105–132.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolff, J. J., Gerig, G., Lewis, J. D., Soda, T., Styner, M. A., Vachet, C., Botteron, K. N., Elison, J. T., Dager, S. R., Estes, A. M., Hazlett, H. C., Schultz, R. T., Zwaigenbaum, L., Piven, J., IBIS Network. (2015). Altered corpus callosum morphology associated with autism over the first 2 years of life. Brain, 138(Pt 7), 2046–2058.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao, Z., Qiu, T., Ke, X., Xiao, X., Xiao, T., Liang, F., Zou, B., Huang, H., Fang, H., Chu, K., Zhang, J., & Liu, Y. (2014). Autism spectrum disorder as early neurodevelopmental disorder: Evidence from the brain imaging abnormalities in 2–3 years old toddlers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(7), 1633–1640.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ziats, M. N., Grosvenor, L. P., & Rennert, O. M. (2015). Functional genomics of human brain development and implications for autism spectrum disorders. Translational Psychiatry, 5(10), e665.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This study was funded by the National Nature Science of Foundation of China (81770526, 81771223), the Key Project of Guangdong Province (2018B030335001), Guangzhou City (202007030002), and Intelligent Medicine Research Project of Chongqing Medical University in 2020 (ZHYX202030) for data collection and language polishing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Translational Medical Research in Cognitive Development and Learning and Memory Disorders, Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400014, China

    Yun Zhang, Bin Qin, Longlun Wang, Ke Zhang, Cui Song, Jie Chen, Jinhua Cai & Tingyu Li

  2. Department of Endocrinology and Genetic Metabolic Disease, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Cui Song

  3. Children Nutrition Research Center, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Jie Chen & Tingyu Li

  4. Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Clinical Big-Data and Drug Evaluation, Medical Data Science, Academy of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400014, China

    Yun Zhang & Bin Qin

Authors
  1. Yun Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bin Qin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Longlun Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ke Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Cui Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jie Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jinhua Cai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Tingyu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Yun Zhang drafted the manuscript, Yun Zhang, Ke Zhang and Cui Song collected the data, Bin Qin and Longlun Wang analyzed the data, Jie Chen, Jinhua Cai and Tingyu Li critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jinhua Cai or Tingyu Li.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University [IRB number: (2018) Ethical Review (Research) No. (82)]. All parents of subjects gave written informed consent after they had been informed of the possible risks and benefits of the research and were assured of the security and privacy concerning the children’s medical records.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Y., Qin, B., Wang, L. et al. Corpus Callosum Volumes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Sex-Associated Differences. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 2421–2429 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05538-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05538-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation