Autistic Disorders and Schizophrenia: Related or Remote? An Anatomical Likelihood Estimation
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2010 papers
Abstract
Shared genetic and environmental risk factors have been identified for autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. Social interaction, communication, emotion processing, sensorimotor gating and executive function are disrupted in both, stimulating debate about whether these are related conditions. Brain imaging studies constitute an informative and expanding resource to determine whether brain structural phenotype of these disorders is distinct or overlapping. We aimed to synthesize existing datasets characterizing ASD and schizophrenia within a common framework, to quantify their structural similarities. In a novel modification of Anatomical Likelihood Estimation (ALE), 313 foci were extracted from 25 voxel-based studies comprising 660 participants (308 ASD, 352 first-episode schizophrenia) and 801 controls. The results revealed that, compared to controls, lower grey matter volumes within limbic-striato-thalamic circuitry were common to ASD and schizophrenia. Unique features of each disorder included lower grey matter volume in amygdala, caudate, frontal and medial gyrus for schizophrenia and putamen for autism. Thus, in terms of brain volumetrics, ASD and schizophrenia have a clear degree of overlap that may reflect shared etiological mechanisms. However, the distinctive neuroanatomy also mapped in each condition raises the question about how this is arrived in the context of common etiological pressures.
Related Papers
- → Mapping grey matter reductions in schizophrenia: An anatomical likelihood estimation analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies(2009)359 cited
- → Voxel-based morphometry analyses in Alzheimer's disease(2013)6 cited
- → ESO06 Infantile Spasms and grey matter volume: voxel based morphometry study(2007)
- → Exploring the grey matter correlates of Wilson's disease using voxel based morphometry(2015)
- → Structural brain alterations in persistent developmental stuttering: a whole- brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis of grey and white matter(2024)