Cerebellar Volumes and Sensorimotor Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

BackgroundSensorimotor issues are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), though their neural bases are not well understood. The cerebellum is vital to sensorimotor control and reduced cerebellar volumes in ASD have been documented. Our study examined the extent to which cerebellar volumes are associated with multiple sensorimotor behaviors in ASD.Materials and MethodsFifty-eight participants with ASD and 34 typically developing (TD) controls (8–30 years) completed a structural MRI scan and precision grip testing, oculomotor testing, or both. Force variability during precision gripping as well as absolute error and trial-to-trial error variability of visually guided saccades were examined. Volumes of cerebellar lobules, vermis, and white matter were quantified. The relationships between each cerebellar region of interest (ROI) and force variability, saccade error, and saccade error variability were examined.ResultsRelative to TD controls, individuals with ASD showed increased force variability. Individuals with ASD showed a reduced volume of cerebellar vermis VI-VII relative to TD controls. Relative to TD females, females with ASD showed a reduced volume of bilateral cerebellar Crus II/lobule VIIB. Increased volume of Crus I was associated with increased force variability. Increased volume of vermal lobules VI-VII was associated with reduced saccade error for TD controls but not individuals with ASD. Increased right lobule VIII and cerebellar white matter volumes as well as reduced right lobule VI and right lobule X volumes were associated with greater ASD symptom severity. Reduced volumes of right Crus II/lobule VIIB were associated with greater ASD symptom severity in only males, while reduced volumes of right Crus I were associated with more severe restricted and repetitive behaviors only in females.ConclusionOur finding that increased force variability in ASD is associated with greater cerebellar Crus I volumes indicates that disruption of sensory feedback processing supported by Crus I may contribute to skeletomotor differences in ASD. Results showing that volumes of vermal lobules VI-VII are associated with saccade precision in TD but not ASD implicates atypical organization of the brain systems supporting oculomotor control in ASD. Associations between volumes of cerebellar subregions and ASD symptom severity suggest cerebellar pathological processes may contribute to multiple developmental challenges in ASD.

Population-wide cerebellar growth models of children and adolescents

“…6A ). This corroborates findings of hypoplasia in posterior vermal and lobular regions, which have been reported consistently before in clinical samples 46 – 48 , 50 , 51 . While the functional parcellation also reveals smaller volumes throughout almost all ROIs, with significant differences in MDTB components 1) Left-hand presses and 6) Divided attention (right), the MDTB components 7) Narrative and 8) Word comprehension seem to not follow the same trend (Fig.…”

Inhibition functions can be improved in children with autism spectrum disorders: An eye‐tracking study

“…Lidstone et al (2021) showed aberrant connectivity between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex in 105 children with ASD and found that elevated RRBs were associated with low right posterior cerebellum-left inferior parietal lobule connectivity and high right posterior cerebellar-right connectivity. A recent study of McKinney et al (2022) reported a relationship between the clinical score of RRB and the white matter volume of the right cerebellar consistent with the well-known role of the cerebellum in the modulation of cognitive and social functions; interestingly, such areas control also eye fixation and pursuit movements (Shemesh & Zee, 2019).…”

Large Data on the Small Brain: Population-wide Cerebellar Growth Models of Children and Adolescents

“…Intriguing reports from mouse models show that targeted activation of right Crus I and the posterior vermis was able to rescue autistic behaviors in TSC1 mutant mice by modulating activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (Kelly et al, 2020). Akin volumetric changes in Crus I and the posterior vermis have been reported in human studies as well as deviations in total cerebellar size (Courchesne et al, 2001;D'Mello et al, 2015;Kaufmann et al, 2003;McKinney et al, 2022;Stanfield et al, 2008). Recently, however, no differences in cerebellar anatomy in individuals with autistic traits were reported when using normative models on cerebellar growth based on a smaller control sample (N=219) (Laidi et al, 2022).…”