A Convergent Structure-function Substrate of Cognitive Imbalances in Autism

Overview

Journal Cereb Cortex

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Neurology

Date 2022 May 13

PMID 35552620

Authors

Seok-Jun Hong

Laurent Mottron

Bo-Yong Park

Oualid Benkarim

Sofie L Valk

Casey Paquola

Sara Lariviere

Reinder Vos de Wael

Janie Degre-Pelletier

Isabelle Soulieres

Bruce Ramphal

Amy Margolis

Michael Milham

Adriana Di Martino

Boris C Bernhardt

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental diagnosis showing substantial phenotypic heterogeneity. A leading example can be found in verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills, which vary from elevated to impaired compared with neurotypical individuals. Moreover, deficits in verbal profiles often coexist with normal or superior performance in the nonverbal domain.

Methods: To study brain substrates underlying cognitive imbalance in ASD, we capitalized categorical and dimensional IQ profiling as well as multimodal neuroimaging.

Results: IQ analyses revealed a marked verbal to nonverbal IQ imbalance in ASD across 2 datasets (Dataset-1: 155 ASD, 151 controls; Dataset-2: 270 ASD, 490 controls). Neuroimaging analysis in Dataset-1 revealed a structure-function substrate of cognitive imbalance, characterized by atypical cortical thickening and altered functional integration of language networks alongside sensory and higher cognitive areas.

Conclusion: Although verbal and nonverbal intelligence have been considered as specifiers unrelated to autism diagnosis, our results indicate that intelligence disparities are accentuated in ASD and reflected by a consistent structure-function substrate affecting multiple brain networks. Our findings motivate the incorporation of cognitive imbalances in future autism research, which may help to parse the phenotypic heterogeneity and inform intervention-oriented subtyping in ASD.

Citing Articles

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