A literature search conducted at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
The following MEDLINE items were compiled by SilverPlatter and are presented with their generous permission. (See SilverPlatter's Worldwide Library for bibliographic search information.)
AU: Guerin-P; Lyon-G; Barthelemy-C; Sostak-E; Chevrollier-V; Garreau-B; Lelord-G
AD: INSERM Unite 316, CHU Bretonneau, Departement de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de Neurophysiologie de Developpement, Tours, France.
SO: Dev-Med-Child-Neurol. 1996 Mar; 38(3): 203-11
ISSN: 0012-1622
PY: 1996
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: Infantile autism is a syndrome of unknown aetiology and unknown neuro-anatomic substrate. The authors report a histological study of the brain of a well-documented 16-year-old female with autistic syndrome and severe mental retardation, using direct microscopic examination of the whole brain. The major findings are low brain weight, a thin corpus callosum and ventricular dilatation. No abnormalities were found in the hippocampus or cerebellum. Excessive axonal elimination during brain development is hypothesized. The relations of hypothetical developmental events with the clinical features of autistic syndrome are discussed.
MESH: Adolescence-; Autism,-Infantile-complications; Cognition-Disorders-complications; Electroencephalography-; Microcephaly-complications; Psychomotor-Disorders-complications; Seizures-complications; Seizures-diagnosis; Speech-Disorders-complications
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis
TG: Case-Report; Female; Human; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
AN: 96214541
UD: 9609
TI: Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in Rett syndrome.
AU: Casanova-MF; Naidu-S; Goldberg-TE; Moser-HW; Khoromi-S; Kumar-A; Kleinman-JE; Weinberger-DR
AD: Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC 20032, USA.
SO: J-Neuropsychiatry-Clin-Neurosci. 1991 Winter; 3(1): 66-72
ISSN: 0895-0172
PY: 1991
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Rett syndrome (RS) is a progressive neurological disorder of females, characterized by the early onset of autistic behavior, ataxia, and "handwringing" movements. The present magnetic resonance imaging study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating whether structural brain abnormalities of RS patients are similar to those recently reported in autism. The subject population consisted of eight patients and an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls. Area and shape measurements were taken at selected anatomical levels for the following structures: brain hemisphere, corpus callosum, midbrain, pons, lobules I-V and VI-VII of the cerebellum, and head of the caudate. Results revealed significant differences in area for the whole brain hemisphere (p < 0.05) and in both right and left caudate (p < 0.04). These morphological findings are different from those recently reported in autism and emphasize the involvement of the striatal system in RS.
MESH: Child-; Child,-Preschool; Image-Processing,-Computer-Assisted; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
MESH: *Rett-Syndrome-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male
PT: CLINICAL-TRIAL; JOURNAL-ARTICLE
AN: 96019977
UD: 9602
TI: NMR intensity of corpus callosum differs with age but not with diagnosis of autism.
AU: Belmonte-M; Egaas-B; Townsend-J; Courchesne-E
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital, San Diego, USA.
SO: Neuroreport. 1995 Jun 19; 6(9): 1253-6
ISSN: 0959-4965
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: NMR signal intensities in five regions of the midsagittal corpus callosum were measured in autism patients and normal controls. An age-related increase in signal was observed in the anterior regions in both groups. No significant differences in intensity were detected between the groups. The finding of normal myelination supports the attribution of callosal narrowing to absence of axons rather than absence of myelin.
MESH: Age-Distribution; Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; Myelin-Proteins-metabolism
MESH: *Aging-physiology; *Autism,-Infantile-metabolism; *Corpus-Callosum-metabolism; *Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance
TG: Female; Human; Male
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
RN: 0
NM: Myelin-Proteins
AN: 95399628
UD: 9512
TI: Reduced size of corpus callosum in autism.
AU: Egaas-B; Courchesne-E; Saitoh-O
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, Calif., USA.
SO: Arch-Neurol. 1995 Aug; 52(8): 794-801
ISSN: 0003-9942
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: OBJECTIVE: To determine via magnetic resonance imaging if the posterior corpus callosum is reduced in the midline cross-sectional area in autistic patients, consistent with previous reports of parietal lobe abnormalities. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Tertiary care facility. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-one autistic patients (45 males and six females; age range, 3 to 42 years), including both mentally retarded and nonretarded patients who met several diagnostic criteria for autism were prospectively selected. Fifty-one age-and sex-matched volunteer normal control subjects were also included. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Computer-aided measurement of cross-sectional area, areas of five subregions, and thickness profile. RESULTS: Overall size reduction, concentrated in posterior subregions. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence is found of a reduced size of the corpus callosum in autistic patients. This reduction is localized to posterior regions, where parietal lobe fibers are known to project. This finding further supports the idea that parietal lobe involvement may be a consistent feature in autism.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Cerebral-Cortex-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Corpus-Callosum-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1R01MH36840MHNIMH; 5R01NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95366879
UD: 9511
SB: AIM
TI: Cross-sectional area of the posterior hippocampus in autistic patients with cerebellar and corpus callosum abnormalities.
AU: Saitoh-O; Courchesne-E; Egaas-B; Lincoln-AJ; Schreibman-L
AD: Neurosciences Department, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego.
SO: Neurology. 1995 Feb; 45(2): 317-24
ISSN: 0028-3878
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Using MRI methods previously shown to optimize visualization of cytoarchitectonic details in the body of the hippocampal formation caudal to the pes hippocampi, we imaged and quantified the hippocampus proper including the subiculum and the dentate gyrus in 33 autistic patients between the ages of 6 and 42 years and in 23 age-matched normal healthy volunteers. Measures of these structures in autistic patients and normal healthy volunteers differed nonsignificantly, by less than 1.4%, regardless of whether or not the autistic patients were retarded or had a history of seizure episodes. By contrast, measures of vermian lobules VI and VII and the posterior portion of the corpus callosum in these same autistic and normal volunteers differed significantly, by more than 9.9%. The lack of a significant difference in the cross-sectional size of the posterior hippocampal formation between autistic and normal 6- to 42-year-olds is discrepant with predictions based on some, but not all, autopsy studies. This suggests that there is a need for additional quantitative autopsy study of the hippocampal formation and quantitative MRI study of rostral hippocampal regions that we did not explore in the present report. Also, quantitative autopsy and MRI studies have yet to examine hippocampal development in autistic patients younger than 6 years of age; whether early stages of growth are normal or not is unknown.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Cerebellum-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool; Corpus-Callosum-pathology; Macaca-mulatta; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; Nerve-Fibers-pathology; Nerve-Fibers-ultrastructure; Reference-Values
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Cerebellum-abnormalities; *Corpus-Callosum-abnormalities; *Hippocampus-anatomy-and-histology; *Hippocampus-pathology
TG: Animal; Comparative-Study; Female; Human; Male; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: CLINICAL-TRIAL; CONTROLLED-CLINICAL-TRIAL; JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1RO1MH36840MHNIMH; 5RO1NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95157753
UD: 9505
SB: AIM
TI: Impairment in shifting attention in autistic and cerebellar patients.
AU: Courchesne-E; Townsend-J; Akshoomoff-NA; Saitoh-O; Yeung-Courchesne-R; Lincoln-AJ; James-HE; Haas-RH; Schreibman-L; Lau-L
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, California 92123.
SO: Behav-Neurosci. 1994 Oct; 108(5): 848-65
ISSN: 0735-7044
PY: 1994
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: MRI and autopsy evidence of early maldevelopment of cerebellar vermis and hemispheres in autism raise the question of how cerebellar maldevelopment contributes to the cognitive and social deficits characteristic of autism. Compared with normal controls, autistic patients and patients with acquired cerebellar lesions were similarly impaired in a task requiring rapid and accurate shifts of attention between auditory and visual stimuli. Neurophysiologic and behavioral evidence rules out motor dysfunction as the cause of this deficit. These findings are consistent with the proposal that in autism cerebellar maldevelopment may contribute to an inability to execute rapid attention shifts, which in turn undermines social and cognitive development, and also with the proposal that the human cerebellum is involved in the coordination of rapid attention shifts in a fashion analogous to its role in the coordination of movement.
MESH: Adolescence-; Astrocytoma-pathology; Astrocytoma-physiopathology; Astrocytoma-surgery; Auditory-Perception-physiology; Autism,-Infantile-pathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-pathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-physiopathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-surgery; Cerebellum-pathology; Cerebellum-physiopathology; Child-; Corpus-Callosum-abnormalities; Corpus-Callosum-pathology; Corpus-Callosum-physiopathology; Dominance,-Cerebral-physiology; Neuropsychological-Tests; Postoperative-Complications-pathology; Postoperative-Complications-physiopathology; Reaction-Time-physiology; Social-Behavior; Visual-Perception-physiology
MESH: *Attention-physiology; *Autism,-Infantile-physiopathology; *Cerebellum-abnormalities
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1RO1MH36840MHNIMH; 5RO1NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95127090
UD: 9504
TI: Corticocallosal anomalies in Asperger's syndrome [letter; comment]
CM: Comment on: AJR Am J Roentgenol 1993 Feb;160(2):387-93
AU: Berthier-ML
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1994 Jan; 162(1): 236-7
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1994
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Retrospective-Studies
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Cerebral-Cortex-pathology; *Corpus-Callosum-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
TG: Human; Male
PT: COMMENT; LETTER
AN: 94099235
UD: 9404
SB: AIM
TI: Autism and hypomelanosis of Ito in twins.
AU: Zappella-M
AD: Department of Child Neuropsychiatry, USL 30, Siena, Italy.
SO: Dev-Med-Child-Neurol. 1993 Sep; 35(9): 826-32
ISSN: 0012-1622
PY: 1993
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: A pair of monozygotic and a pair of dizygotic twins with autism and hypomelanosis of Ito skin-abnormalities are described. These observations are further evidence of the frequent association between these two conditions, already demonstrated in the literature, and suggest a possibly higher incidence of single gene associations among cases of autism with known genetic basis.
MESH: Adolescence-; Autism,-Infantile-complications; Autism,-Infantile-physiopathology; Brain-physiopathology; Brain-radiography; Corpus-Callosum-radiography; Karyotyping-; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; Melatonin-secretion; Metabolic-Diseases-complications; Metabolic-Diseases-physiopathology; Pigmentation-Disorders-complications
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; *Corpus-Callosum-physiopathology; *Melatonin-analysis; *Pigmentation-Disorders-physiopathology; *Twins,-Monozygotic
TG: Case-Report; Human; Male
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
RN: 73-31-4
NM: Melatonin
AN: 93359097
UD: 9311
TI: Parietal lobe abnormalities detected with MR in patients with infantile autism [see comments]
CM: Comment in: AJR Am J Roentgenol 1994 Jan;162(1):236-7
AU: Courchesne-E; Press-GA; Yeung-Courchesne-R
AD: Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1993 Feb; 160(2): 387-93
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1993
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: OBJECTIVE. Infantile autism is a neurologic disorder that severely disrupts the development of many higher cognitive functions. The most consistent abnormal neuroanatomic findings in autism are loss of Purkinje neurons in the posterior cerebellum as detected by autopsy studies and hypoplasia of the posterior cerebellar vermis and hemispheres as detected by in vivo neuroimaging. Evidence of developmental arrest has also been detected in limbic structures in autopsy studies of autistic patients with mental retardation. Neither in vivo neuroimaging nor autopsy studies of autistic persons have reported abnormalities in the cerebrum. Because the cerebrum mediates many higher cognitive functions, such as social communication, language, abstract reasoning, planning, and organization, that are known to be deficient in patients with autism, a closer examination of the neuroanatomy of the cerebrum in infantile autism is warranted. MATERIALS AND METHODS. MR images of 21 healthy autistic patients (6-32 years old) were mixed with MR images of control subjects and reviewed on four separate occasions by a neuroradiologist for any neuroanatomic abnormalities. Autism was diagnosed on the basis of criteria for autism as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the autistic patients did not have any other concurrent neurologic disorders. To control for systematic bias in judging the type and location of abnormalities in the autistic population, three control groups were used: a normal control group of 12 subjects, a control group of 23 nonautistic patients with a variety of brain abnormalities for the first review, and another control group of 17 nonautistic patients for the second review. Control patients with brain abnormalities were selected from patients' files on the basis of MR findings of a variety of brain abnormalities. All MR images were coded for anonymity, randomly mixed, and examined by a neuroradiologist blinded to the purpose of the study and to the group membership of each subject. All normal and abnormal findings seen on the MR images of each subject were described on a standard form listing all major brain structures to ensure an examination of each structure in turn. To test for reliability, three subsequent reviews were performed by the same neuroradiologist. RESULTS. Parietal lobes were abnormal in appearance in 43% (9/21) of autistic patients. Cortical volume loss in the parietal lobes was seen in seven autistic patients; in four of these cases, cortical volume loss extended either into the adjacent superior frontal or occipital lobe. Additional abnormalities detected with MR in these nine patients included white matter volume loss in the parietal lobes (three patients) and thinning of the corpus callosum, especially along the posterior body (two patients). Abnormalities were bilateral. The mesial, lateral, and orbital regions of the frontal lobes; temporal lobes; limbic structures; basal ganglia; diencephalon; and brainstem were normal in all autistic patients. No abnormalities were found in the 12 normal control subjects. The control subjects with neurologic abnormalities had various abnormal findings consistent with their medical conditions. CONCLUSION. Our results indicate that the parietal lobes are reduced in volume in a portion of the autistic population. Possible origins for this localized cerebral abnormality include early-onset altered development and late-onset progressive atrophy.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; Autism,-Infantile-psychology; Child-; Neuropsychological-Tests
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; *Parietal-Lobe-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1R01MH36840MHNIMH; 5R01NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 93142672
UD: 9304
SB: AIM
TI: Cerebellar and cerebral abnormalities in Rett syndrome: a quantitative MR analysis.
AU: Murakami-JW; Courchesne-E; Haas-RH; Press-GA; Yeung-Courchesne-R
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, CA 92123.
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1992 Jul; 159(1): 177-83
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1992
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Rett syndrome is a neurodegenerative disease of young girls that begins in early childhood with autismlike behavior and loss of language skills, and progresses with marked deterioration of the motor system in the second decade of life. The purpose of this study was to determine if neuroanatomic changes detected with MR imaging could help to explain the clinical presentation and progression of signs and symptoms in these patients. Accordingly, computer-assisted planimetry was used to measure various dimensions of cerebral, cerebellar, and brainstem structures on sagittal and transverse MR images of 13 patients with Rett syndrome and 10 healthy volunteers. Dimensions of the cerebrum, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and brainstem were measured on transverse images. Areas of cerebellar vermian lobules, the fourth ventricle, the pituitary gland, and the corpus callosum were measured on sagittal images. Fourteen dimensions and areas were measured in each patient and each control subject; according to two-tailed Student's t tests, all but two values were significantly smaller in the patients with Rett syndrome than in control subjects. Graphing the measurements against age by using simple linear regression revealed progressive cerebellar atrophy without evidence of atrophy of the brainstem or cerebrum. Our results indicate that patients with Rett syndrome have global hypoplasia of the brain and progressive cerebellar atrophy increasing with age. Cerebellar atrophy with age may contribute to the deterioration of the motor system seen in older patients with Rett syndrome.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Brain-Stem-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool
MESH: *Cerebellum-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; *Rett-Syndrome-diagnosis; *Telencephalon-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 5R01NS19855NSNINDS; K08NS01024NSNINDS; M01RR00827RRNCRR
AN: 92303450
UD: 9209
SB: AIM
TI: Neuropathological study of a case of autistic syndrome with severe mental retardation.
AU: Guerin-P; Lyon-G; Barthelemy-C; Sostak-E; Chevrollier-V; Garreau-B; Lelord-G
AD: INSERM Unite 316, CHU Bretonneau, Departement de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de Neurophysiologie de Developpement, Tours, France.
SO: Dev-Med-Child-Neurol. 1996 Mar; 38(3): 203-11
ISSN: 0012-1622
PY: 1996
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: Infantile autism is a syndrome of unknown aetiology and unknown neuro-anatomic substrate. The authors report a histological study of the brain of a well-documented 16-year-old female with autistic syndrome and severe mental retardation, using direct microscopic examination of the whole brain. The major findings are low brain weight, a thin corpus callosum and ventricular dilatation. No abnormalities were found in the hippocampus or cerebellum. Excessive axonal elimination during brain development is hypothesized. The relations of hypothetical developmental events with the clinical features of autistic syndrome are discussed.
MESH: Adolescence-; Autism,-Infantile-complications; Cognition-Disorders-complications; Electroencephalography-; Microcephaly-complications; Psychomotor-Disorders-complications; Seizures-complications; Seizures-diagnosis; Speech-Disorders-complications
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis
TG: Case-Report; Female; Human; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
AN: 96214541
UD: 9609
TI: Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in Rett syndrome.
AU: Casanova-MF; Naidu-S; Goldberg-TE; Moser-HW; Khoromi-S; Kumar-A; Kleinman-JE; Weinberger-DR
AD: Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC 20032, USA.
SO: J-Neuropsychiatry-Clin-Neurosci. 1991 Winter; 3(1): 66-72
ISSN: 0895-0172
PY: 1991
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Rett syndrome (RS) is a progressive neurological disorder of females, characterized by the early onset of autistic behavior, ataxia, and "handwringing" movements. The present magnetic resonance imaging study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating whether structural brain abnormalities of RS patients are similar to those recently reported in autism. The subject population consisted of eight patients and an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls. Area and shape measurements were taken at selected anatomical levels for the following structures: brain hemisphere, corpus callosum, midbrain, pons, lobules I-V and VI-VII of the cerebellum, and head of the caudate. Results revealed significant differences in area for the whole brain hemisphere (p < 0.05) and in both right and left caudate (p < 0.04). These morphological findings are different from those recently reported in autism and emphasize the involvement of the striatal system in RS.
MESH: Child-; Child,-Preschool; Image-Processing,-Computer-Assisted; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
MESH: *Rett-Syndrome-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male
PT: CLINICAL-TRIAL; JOURNAL-ARTICLE
AN: 96019977
UD: 9602
TI: NMR intensity of corpus callosum differs with age but not with diagnosis of autism.
AU: Belmonte-M; Egaas-B; Townsend-J; Courchesne-E
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital, San Diego, USA.
SO: Neuroreport. 1995 Jun 19; 6(9): 1253-6
ISSN: 0959-4965
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: NMR signal intensities in five regions of the midsagittal corpus callosum were measured in autism patients and normal controls. An age-related increase in signal was observed in the anterior regions in both groups. No significant differences in intensity were detected between the groups. The finding of normal myelination supports the attribution of callosal narrowing to absence of axons rather than absence of myelin.
MESH: Age-Distribution; Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; Myelin-Proteins-metabolism
MESH: *Aging-physiology; *Autism,-Infantile-metabolism; *Corpus-Callosum-metabolism; *Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance
TG: Female; Human; Male
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
RN: 0
NM: Myelin-Proteins
AN: 95399628
UD: 9512
TI: Reduced size of corpus callosum in autism.
AU: Egaas-B; Courchesne-E; Saitoh-O
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, Calif., USA.
SO: Arch-Neurol. 1995 Aug; 52(8): 794-801
ISSN: 0003-9942
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: OBJECTIVE: To determine via magnetic resonance imaging if the posterior corpus callosum is reduced in the midline cross-sectional area in autistic patients, consistent with previous reports of parietal lobe abnormalities. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Tertiary care facility. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-one autistic patients (45 males and six females; age range, 3 to 42 years), including both mentally retarded and nonretarded patients who met several diagnostic criteria for autism were prospectively selected. Fifty-one age-and sex-matched volunteer normal control subjects were also included. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Computer-aided measurement of cross-sectional area, areas of five subregions, and thickness profile. RESULTS: Overall size reduction, concentrated in posterior subregions. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence is found of a reduced size of the corpus callosum in autistic patients. This reduction is localized to posterior regions, where parietal lobe fibers are known to project. This finding further supports the idea that parietal lobe involvement may be a consistent feature in autism.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Cerebral-Cortex-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Corpus-Callosum-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1R01MH36840MHNIMH; 5R01NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95366879
UD: 9511
SB: AIM
TI: Cross-sectional area of the posterior hippocampus in autistic patients with cerebellar and corpus callosum abnormalities.
AU: Saitoh-O; Courchesne-E; Egaas-B; Lincoln-AJ; Schreibman-L
AD: Neurosciences Department, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego.
SO: Neurology. 1995 Feb; 45(2): 317-24
ISSN: 0028-3878
PY: 1995
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Using MRI methods previously shown to optimize visualization of cytoarchitectonic details in the body of the hippocampal formation caudal to the pes hippocampi, we imaged and quantified the hippocampus proper including the subiculum and the dentate gyrus in 33 autistic patients between the ages of 6 and 42 years and in 23 age-matched normal healthy volunteers. Measures of these structures in autistic patients and normal healthy volunteers differed nonsignificantly, by less than 1.4%, regardless of whether or not the autistic patients were retarded or had a history of seizure episodes. By contrast, measures of vermian lobules VI and VII and the posterior portion of the corpus callosum in these same autistic and normal volunteers differed significantly, by more than 9.9%. The lack of a significant difference in the cross-sectional size of the posterior hippocampal formation between autistic and normal 6- to 42-year-olds is discrepant with predictions based on some, but not all, autopsy studies. This suggests that there is a need for additional quantitative autopsy study of the hippocampal formation and quantitative MRI study of rostral hippocampal regions that we did not explore in the present report. Also, quantitative autopsy and MRI studies have yet to examine hippocampal development in autistic patients younger than 6 years of age; whether early stages of growth are normal or not is unknown.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Cerebellum-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool; Corpus-Callosum-pathology; Macaca-mulatta; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; Nerve-Fibers-pathology; Nerve-Fibers-ultrastructure; Reference-Values
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Cerebellum-abnormalities; *Corpus-Callosum-abnormalities; *Hippocampus-anatomy-and-histology; *Hippocampus-pathology
TG: Animal; Comparative-Study; Female; Human; Male; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: CLINICAL-TRIAL; CONTROLLED-CLINICAL-TRIAL; JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1RO1MH36840MHNIMH; 5RO1NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95157753
UD: 9505
SB: AIM
TI: Impairment in shifting attention in autistic and cerebellar patients.
AU: Courchesne-E; Townsend-J; Akshoomoff-NA; Saitoh-O; Yeung-Courchesne-R; Lincoln-AJ; James-HE; Haas-RH; Schreibman-L; Lau-L
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, California 92123.
SO: Behav-Neurosci. 1994 Oct; 108(5): 848-65
ISSN: 0735-7044
PY: 1994
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: MRI and autopsy evidence of early maldevelopment of cerebellar vermis and hemispheres in autism raise the question of how cerebellar maldevelopment contributes to the cognitive and social deficits characteristic of autism. Compared with normal controls, autistic patients and patients with acquired cerebellar lesions were similarly impaired in a task requiring rapid and accurate shifts of attention between auditory and visual stimuli. Neurophysiologic and behavioral evidence rules out motor dysfunction as the cause of this deficit. These findings are consistent with the proposal that in autism cerebellar maldevelopment may contribute to an inability to execute rapid attention shifts, which in turn undermines social and cognitive development, and also with the proposal that the human cerebellum is involved in the coordination of rapid attention shifts in a fashion analogous to its role in the coordination of movement.
MESH: Adolescence-; Astrocytoma-pathology; Astrocytoma-physiopathology; Astrocytoma-surgery; Auditory-Perception-physiology; Autism,-Infantile-pathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-pathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-physiopathology; Cerebellar-Neoplasms-surgery; Cerebellum-pathology; Cerebellum-physiopathology; Child-; Corpus-Callosum-abnormalities; Corpus-Callosum-pathology; Corpus-Callosum-physiopathology; Dominance,-Cerebral-physiology; Neuropsychological-Tests; Postoperative-Complications-pathology; Postoperative-Complications-physiopathology; Reaction-Time-physiology; Social-Behavior; Visual-Perception-physiology
MESH: *Attention-physiology; *Autism,-Infantile-physiopathology; *Cerebellum-abnormalities
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1RO1MH36840MHNIMH; 5RO1NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 95127090
UD: 9504
TI: Corticocallosal anomalies in Asperger's syndrome [letter; comment]
CM: Comment on: AJR Am J Roentgenol 1993 Feb;160(2):387-93
AU: Berthier-ML
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1994 Jan; 162(1): 236-7
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1994
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Retrospective-Studies
MESH: *Autism-pathology; *Cerebral-Cortex-pathology; *Corpus-Callosum-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging
TG: Human; Male
PT: COMMENT; LETTER
AN: 94099235
UD: 9404
SB: AIM
TI: Autism and hypomelanosis of Ito in twins.
AU: Zappella-M
AD: Department of Child Neuropsychiatry, USL 30, Siena, Italy.
SO: Dev-Med-Child-Neurol. 1993 Sep; 35(9): 826-32
ISSN: 0012-1622
PY: 1993
LA: ENGLISH
CP: ENGLAND
AB: A pair of monozygotic and a pair of dizygotic twins with autism and hypomelanosis of Ito skin-abnormalities are described. These observations are further evidence of the frequent association between these two conditions, already demonstrated in the literature, and suggest a possibly higher incidence of single gene associations among cases of autism with known genetic basis.
MESH: Adolescence-; Autism,-Infantile-complications; Autism,-Infantile-physiopathology; Brain-physiopathology; Brain-radiography; Corpus-Callosum-radiography; Karyotyping-; Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; Melatonin-secretion; Metabolic-Diseases-complications; Metabolic-Diseases-physiopathology; Pigmentation-Disorders-complications
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; *Corpus-Callosum-physiopathology; *Melatonin-analysis; *Pigmentation-Disorders-physiopathology; *Twins,-Monozygotic
TG: Case-Report; Human; Male
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
RN: 73-31-4
NM: Melatonin
AN: 93359097
UD: 9311
TI: Parietal lobe abnormalities detected with MR in patients with infantile autism [see comments]
CM: Comment in: AJR Am J Roentgenol 1994 Jan;162(1):236-7
AU: Courchesne-E; Press-GA; Yeung-Courchesne-R
AD: Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1993 Feb; 160(2): 387-93
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1993
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: OBJECTIVE. Infantile autism is a neurologic disorder that severely disrupts the development of many higher cognitive functions. The most consistent abnormal neuroanatomic findings in autism are loss of Purkinje neurons in the posterior cerebellum as detected by autopsy studies and hypoplasia of the posterior cerebellar vermis and hemispheres as detected by in vivo neuroimaging. Evidence of developmental arrest has also been detected in limbic structures in autopsy studies of autistic patients with mental retardation. Neither in vivo neuroimaging nor autopsy studies of autistic persons have reported abnormalities in the cerebrum. Because the cerebrum mediates many higher cognitive functions, such as social communication, language, abstract reasoning, planning, and organization, that are known to be deficient in patients with autism, a closer examination of the neuroanatomy of the cerebrum in infantile autism is warranted. MATERIALS AND METHODS. MR images of 21 healthy autistic patients (6-32 years old) were mixed with MR images of control subjects and reviewed on four separate occasions by a neuroradiologist for any neuroanatomic abnormalities. Autism was diagnosed on the basis of criteria for autism as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the autistic patients did not have any other concurrent neurologic disorders. To control for systematic bias in judging the type and location of abnormalities in the autistic population, three control groups were used: a normal control group of 12 subjects, a control group of 23 nonautistic patients with a variety of brain abnormalities for the first review, and another control group of 17 nonautistic patients for the second review. Control patients with brain abnormalities were selected from patients' files on the basis of MR findings of a variety of brain abnormalities. All MR images were coded for anonymity, randomly mixed, and examined by a neuroradiologist blinded to the purpose of the study and to the group membership of each subject. All normal and abnormal findings seen on the MR images of each subject were described on a standard form listing all major brain structures to ensure an examination of each structure in turn. To test for reliability, three subsequent reviews were performed by the same neuroradiologist. RESULTS. Parietal lobes were abnormal in appearance in 43% (9/21) of autistic patients. Cortical volume loss in the parietal lobes was seen in seven autistic patients; in four of these cases, cortical volume loss extended either into the adjacent superior frontal or occipital lobe. Additional abnormalities detected with MR in these nine patients included white matter volume loss in the parietal lobes (three patients) and thinning of the corpus callosum, especially along the posterior body (two patients). Abnormalities were bilateral. The mesial, lateral, and orbital regions of the frontal lobes; temporal lobes; limbic structures; basal ganglia; diencephalon; and brainstem were normal in all autistic patients. No abnormalities were found in the 12 normal control subjects. The control subjects with neurologic abnormalities had various abnormal findings consistent with their medical conditions. CONCLUSION. Our results indicate that the parietal lobes are reduced in volume in a portion of the autistic population. Possible origins for this localized cerebral abnormality include early-onset altered development and late-onset progressive atrophy.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Autism,-Infantile-diagnosis; Autism,-Infantile-psychology; Child-; Neuropsychological-Tests
MESH: *Autism,-Infantile-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; *Parietal-Lobe-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Male; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 1R01MH36840MHNIMH; 5R01NS19855NSNINDS
AN: 93142672
UD: 9304
SB: AIM
TI: Cerebellar and cerebral abnormalities in Rett syndrome: a quantitative MR analysis.
AU: Murakami-JW; Courchesne-E; Haas-RH; Press-GA; Yeung-Courchesne-R
AD: Neuropsychology Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Center, San Diego, CA 92123.
SO: AJR-Am-J-Roentgenol. 1992 Jul; 159(1): 177-83
ISSN: 0361-803X
PY: 1992
LA: ENGLISH
CP: UNITED-STATES
AB: Rett syndrome is a neurodegenerative disease of young girls that begins in early childhood with autismlike behavior and loss of language skills, and progresses with marked deterioration of the motor system in the second decade of life. The purpose of this study was to determine if neuroanatomic changes detected with MR imaging could help to explain the clinical presentation and progression of signs and symptoms in these patients. Accordingly, computer-assisted planimetry was used to measure various dimensions of cerebral, cerebellar, and brainstem structures on sagittal and transverse MR images of 13 patients with Rett syndrome and 10 healthy volunteers. Dimensions of the cerebrum, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and brainstem were measured on transverse images. Areas of cerebellar vermian lobules, the fourth ventricle, the pituitary gland, and the corpus callosum were measured on sagittal images. Fourteen dimensions and areas were measured in each patient and each control subject; according to two-tailed Student's t tests, all but two values were significantly smaller in the patients with Rett syndrome than in control subjects. Graphing the measurements against age by using simple linear regression revealed progressive cerebellar atrophy without evidence of atrophy of the brainstem or cerebrum. Our results indicate that patients with Rett syndrome have global hypoplasia of the brain and progressive cerebellar atrophy increasing with age. Cerebellar atrophy with age may contribute to the deterioration of the motor system seen in older patients with Rett syndrome.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Brain-Stem-pathology; Child-; Child,-Preschool
MESH: *Cerebellum-pathology; *Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging; *Rett-Syndrome-diagnosis; *Telencephalon-pathology
TG: Female; Human; Support,-Non-U.S.-Gov't; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PT: JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CN: 5R01NS19855NSNINDS; K08NS01024NSNINDS; M01RR00827RRNCRR
AN: 92303450
UD: 9209
SB: AIM