Autism Traits in Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 43; no. 5; pp. 1106 - 1118
• Main Authors: Lau, Yolanda C., Hinkley, Leighton B. N., Bukshpun, Polina, Strominger, Zoe A., Wakahiro, Mari L. J., Baron-Cohen, Simon, Allison, Carrie, Auyeung, Bonnie, Jeremy, Rita J., Nagarajan, Srikantan S., Sherr, Elliott H., Marco, Elysa J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.05.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aetiology; Agenesis; Agenesis of Corpus Callosum - physiopathology; Agenesis of Corpus Callosum - psychology; Anatomy; Autism; Autistic children; Autistic spectrum disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Care and treatment; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child clinical studies; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - diagnosis; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - physiopathology; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - psychology; Child, Preschool; Complications and side effects; Correlation; Developmental disorders; Diagnosis; Female; Functional connectivity; Humans; Imagination; Infantile autism; Language Impairments; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Magnetoencephalography; Male; Medical sciences; Neurological Impairments; Neurology; Neurosciences; Pediatrics; Pervasive developmental disorders; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Risk factors; Screening Tests; Superior temporal gyrus; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Autism spectrum disorders; Functional connectivity; Autism Spectrum Quotient; Superior temporal gyrus; Agenesis of the corpus callosum; Magnetoencephalography; Temporal lobe; Agenesis; Central nervous system; Developmental disorder; Corpus callosum; Autism spectrum disorder; Encephalon; Autism; Pervasive developmental disorder; Malformation
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-012-1653-2

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have numerous etiologies, including structural brain malformations such as agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC). We sought to directly measure the occurrence of autism traits in a cohort of individuals with AgCC and to investigate the neural underpinnings of this association. We screened a large AgCC cohort (n = 106) with the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and found that 45 % of children, 35 % of adolescents, and 18 % of adults exceeded the predetermined autism-screening cut-off. Interestingly, performance on the AQ’s imagination domain was inversely correlated with magnetoencephalography measures of resting-state functional connectivity in the right superior temporal gyrus. Individuals with AgCC should be screened for ASD and disorders of the corpus callosum should be considered in autism diagnostic evaluations as well.