Cerebellar atypicalities in autism?
Résumé
Background. The cerebellum contains more than 50% of the brain neurons and is involved in a broad range of cognitive functions, including social cognition. Anatomical atypicalities in the cerebellum have repeatedly been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (autism). However, most studies have yielded inconsistent findings-likely because of a lack of statistical power-and did not capture the clinical and neuroanatomical diversity of autism. The aim of our study was to better understand cerebellar anatomy but also its diversity in individuals with autism.
Methods. We studied the cerebellar grey matter morphology in a sample of 274 individuals with autism and 219 controls recruited in a multicentre European cohort (EU-AIMS LEAP study). To ensure the robustness of our results, we conducted cerebellar automated parcellation with two different pipelines and also voxel-based morphometry. We performed statistical analyses with both linear and normative models to capture the diversity of cerebellar anatomy in individuals with autism and controls.
Results. We did not find any significant differences in the cerebellum when comparing individuals with autism and controls using linear models. In addition, there were no significant deviations in our normative models in the cerebellum, suggesting that there might be no difference in the anatomy of individuals with autism and controls. Last, the cerebellar anatomy was not associated with the symptoms of ASD.
Conclusions. Despite positive results published in the last decade from relatively small samples, our results suggest that there is no striking difference in cerebellar anatomy of individuals with autism.
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