Dr. Temple Grandin: Neuropsychological Assessment and a Multimodal Neuroimaging Case Study of a Distinguished Scientist, Educator, and Person With Autism

Abstract

Temple Grandin, Ph.D. is likely the most well-known, living autistic individual, both nationally and internationally. As a personal quest to better understand the neurobiology and complexities of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Dr. Grandin, has published extensively about her own journey with autism, which include speculations about brain structure and function, including how she perceives the workings of her brain. As another step in self-assessment, Dr. Grandin volunteered to undergo neuropsychological assessment as well as a multi-modality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of her brain, which included quantitative structural MRI analyses, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MRI (fMRI) assessments. Neuropsychological Testing demonstrated superior visuospatial abilities, including visual memory, in contrast to average level language-based tasks. A standard auditory-language fMRI protocol demonstrated activation of expected traditional brain regions with left-lateralization of language. However, when listening to lyric-based music during an fMRI experiment, the fMRI activation pattern demonstrated predominantly visual network activity and not auditory. General brain morphometry analyses demonstrated a distinct asymmetry within the lateral ventricular system, with the left lateral ventricle being larger than the right, although absolute ventricular size was not different from age-adjusted norms. Left versus right region of interest (ROI) analyses did not reveal any distinct difference in general brain morphometry. The superiority of visuospatial and visual memory abilities, combined with visualization of language-based sounds activating visual centers, is consistent with the exceptional skill levels that Dr. Grandin has professionally demonstrated, which suggests unique neural systems that underlie superior neuropsychological functioning in non-verbal, visuospatial neural networks.

Keywords: Autism; DTI; MRI; Neuropsychological Testing; Ph.D.; Quantitative and Multimodal Neuroimaging; Temple Grandin; fMRI.