Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder in a study of 54 datasets

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 4958 - 12
• Main Authors: Postema, Merel C., van Rooij, Daan, Anagnostou, Evdokia, Arango, Celso, Auzias, Guillaume, Behrmann, Marlene, Filho, Geraldo Busatto, Calderoni, Sara, Calvo, Rosa, Daly, Eileen, Deruelle, Christine, Di Martino, Adriana, Dinstein, Ilan, Duran, Fabio Luis S., Durston, Sarah, Ecker, Christine, Ehrlich, Stefan, Fair, Damien, Fedor, Jennifer, Feng, Xin, Fitzgerald, Jackie, Floris, Dorothea L., Freitag, Christine M., Gallagher, Louise, Glahn, David C., Gori, Ilaria, Haar, Shlomi, Hoekstra, Liesbeth, Jahanshad, Neda, Jalbrzikowski, Maria, Janssen, Joost, King, Joseph A., Kong, Xiang Zhen, Lazaro, Luisa, Lerch, Jason P., Luna, Beatriz, Martinho, Mauricio M., McGrath, Jane, Medland, Sarah E., Muratori, Filippo, Murphy, Clodagh M., Murphy, Declan G. M., O’Hearn, Kirsten, Oranje, Bob, Parellada, Mara, Puig, Olga, Retico, Alessandra, Rosa, Pedro, Rubia, Katya, Shook, Devon, Taylor, Margot J., Tosetti, Michela, Wallace, Gregory L., Zhou, Fengfeng, Thompson, Paul M., Fisher, Simon E., Buitelaar, Jan K., Francks, Clyde
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31.10.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 59/57; 631/378; 692/699/476/1373; Adolescent; Adult; Asymmetry; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Autism Spectrum Disorder - pathology; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - pathology; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - pathology; Child; Consortia; Cortex; Datasets; Female; Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Frontal Lobe - pathology; Gyrus Cinguli - diagnostic imaging; Gyrus Cinguli - pathology; Hemispheric laterality; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Life Sciences; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Organ Size; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - pathology; Putamen; Science; Temporal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Temporal Lobe - pathology; Thickness; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13005-8

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported. However, findings have been inconsistent, likely due to limited sample sizes. Here we investigated 1,774 individuals with ASD and 1,809 controls, from 54 independent data sets of the ENIGMA consortium. ASD was significantly associated with alterations of cortical thickness asymmetry in mostly medial frontal, orbitofrontal, cingulate and inferior temporal areas, and also with asymmetry of orbitofrontal surface area. These differences generally involved reduced asymmetry in individuals with ASD compared to controls. Furthermore, putamen volume asymmetry was significantly increased in ASD. The largest case-control effect size was Cohen’s d  = −0.13, for asymmetry of superior frontal cortical thickness. Most effects did not depend on age, sex, IQ, severity or medication use. Altered lateralized neurodevelopment may therefore be a feature of ASD, affecting widespread brain regions with diverse functions. Large-scale analysis was necessary to quantify subtle alterations of brain structural asymmetry in ASD. Changes in brain structure asymmetry have been reported in autism spectrum disorder. Here the authors investigate this issue using a large-scale sample consisting of 54 data sets.