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. 2013 May;43(5):1106-18.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1653-2.

Autism traits in individuals with agenesis of the corpus callosum

Yolanda C Lau  1 , Leighton B N Hinkley, Polina Bukshpun, Zoe A Strominger, Mari L J Wakahiro, Simon Baron-Cohen, Carrie Allison, Bonnie Auyeung, Rita J Jeremy, Srikantan S Nagarajan, Elliott H Sherr, Elysa J Marco
Affiliations

Autism traits in individuals with agenesis of the corpus callosum

Yolanda C Lau et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 May.

Abstract

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.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of AQ scores in the AgCC, control, and autism cohorts by age. a. Distribution of AQ scores in children, total possible score= 141, cut off for autism 76; b. Distribution of AQ scores in adolescents, total possible score= 50, cut off for autism 30. Data for the autism and control adolescents was not available; c. Distribution of self-report AQ scores in adults, total possible score= 50, cut off for autism 32.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Results of a correlation analysis between resting-state MEG functional connectivity values (imaginary coherence) and AQ scores (imagination subscore) for the AgCC cohort. A significant negative correlation (p<0.0005) is seen between functional connectivity of the superior temporal gyrus (left column, green crosshairs) and AQ imagination scores. The correlation map is overlaid on a canonical T1-weighted MNI template brain.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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