Abstract
Background: Early neurodevelopmental pathogenesis in autism potentially affects emerging
functional maps, but little imaging evidence is available.
Methods: We studied eight male autistic and eight matched normal subjects, using functional
magnetic resonance imaging during visually paced finger movement, compared to a control
condition (visual stimulation in the absence of motor response).
Results: Groupwise analyses showed activation in contralateral perirolandic cortex,
basal ganglia, and thalamus, bilateral supplementary motor area, and ipsilateral cerebellum
for both groups. However, activations were less pronounced in the autism group. Direct
group comparisons demonstrated greater activation in perirolandic and supplementary
motor areas in the control group and greater activation (or reduced deactivation)
in posterior and prefrontal cortices in the autism group. Intraindividual analyses
further showed that strongest activations were consistently located along the contralateral
central sulcus in control subjects but occurred in locations differing from individual
to individual in the autism group.
Conclusions: Our findings, though based on a rather small sample, suggest abnormal
individual variability of functional maps and less distinct regional activation/deactivation
patterns in autism. The observations may relate to known motor impairments in autism
and are compatible with the general hypothesis of disturbances of functional differentiation
in the autistic cerebrum.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 31,
2000
Received in revised form:
July 24,
2000
Received:
April 24,
2000
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
