Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder underdiagnosed in adults. To date, no consistent evidence of alterations in brain structure has been reported in adults with ASD and few studies were conducted at that age. We analyzed structural magnetic resonance imaging data from 167 high functioning adults with ASD and 195 controls. We ran our analyses on a discovery (n = 301) and a replication sample (n = 61). The right caudal anterior cingulate cortical thickness was significantly thinner in adults with ASD compared to controls in both the discovery and the replication sample. Our work underlines the relevance of studying the brain anatomy of an adult ASD population.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported via collaboration with the Institut Roche and by the Investissements d’Avenir programs managed by the ANR under references ANR-11-IDEX-004-02 (Labex BioPsy) and ANR-10-COHO-10-01. The authors would like to thank the participating personnel of the centres, and the subjects who participated to this study. We would also like to thank Ms. Ellen Ji for proofreading of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank and acknowledge Tiziana Zalla (July 1, 1963–April 28, 2018) for her contributions not only to this work but also to the greater scientific community. Tiziana Zalla was a well-respected international researcher and friend who will be remembered for her strong core values and many achievements in the fields of cognitive science and psychiatry.
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CL wrote the main manuscript text and prepared Figures and Tables. All authors (CL, JB, AdP, ED, SH, Md'A, RD, FB, CC, CB, AA, JP, SH, JD, AG, ET, MLM, IS, ML and JH) reviewed the manuscript.
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Laidi, C., Boisgontier, J., de Pierrefeu, A. et al. Decreased Cortical Thickness in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Adults with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 1402–1409 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3807-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3807-3