1H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Markers of Cognitive and Language Ability in Clinical Subtypes of Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

This study assessed metabolic functioning of regional brain areas to address whether there is a neurometabolic profile reflecting the underlying neuropathology in individuals with autism spectrum disorders, and if varied profiles correlate with the clinical subtypes. Thirteen children (7-16 years) with autism spectrum disorders and 8 typically developing children were compared on (1)H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy data collected from hippocampus-amygdala and cerebellar regions. The autism spectrum disorder group had significantly lower N-acetyl-aspartate/creatine ratios bilaterally in the hippocampus-amygdala but not cerebellum, whereas myo-inositol/creatine was significantly increased in all measured regions. Choline/creatine was also significantly elevated in the left hippocampus-amygdala and cerebellar regions of children with autism spectrum disorder. Comparisons within the autism spectrum disorder group when clinically subdivided by history of speech delay revealed significant metabolic ratio differences. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can provide important information regarding abnormal brain metabolism and clinical classification in autism spectrum disorders.

Morphological and Metabolic Alteration of Cerebellum in Patients with Post-Stroke Depression

“…Increments of Cho/Cr ratio indicates that PSD may be related to increment of cerebellar nerve cell membrane phospholipids renewal and changes of membrane structure. Alterations of Cho in cerebellum have also been found in other psychiatric diseases [12,31], which is in line with our study results. The difference between current study and the report from Xu et al [32] may be related to the difference of subjects, ROI locations and image resolution ratio that applied.…”

“…are related to cerebellar dysfunctions [11,12]. While at present, there are few reports on the study of the correlation between cerebellum and PSD.…”

Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study on the Metabolism Changes of Cerebellum in Patients with Post-Stroke Depression

“…There is rare report of MRS study about the relation between cerebellum and PSD worldwide. With regard to infantile autism or other psychiatric disorders, some reports showed the cerebellar Cho concentration was significantly elevated compared with the control group [12, 25], which was similar to ours.…”

“…Accumulative neuroimaging studies in recent years have showed that the mental disorders such as depression, infantile autism, etc. were associated with cerebellar lesions [11, 12]. …”

Does infectious fever relieve autistic behavior by releasing glutamine from skeletal muscles as provisional fuel?

“…Third, ion gradients maintain cell volume. Astrocytes appear swollen in ASD [81], the osmolyte myoinositol is elevated [82], and osmolytes taurine and glutamine appear depleted [4,83].…”