Anatomy and aging of the amygdala and hippocampus in autism spectrum disorder: an in vivo magnetic resonance imaging study of Asperger syndrome
Abstract
It has been proposed that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have abnormal morphometry and development of the amygdala and hippocampus (AH). However, previous reports are inconsistent, perhaps because they included people of different ASD diagnoses, ages, and health. We compared, using magnetic resonance imaging, the in vivo anatomy of the AH in 32 healthy individuals with Asperger syndrome (12-47 years) and 32 healthy controls who did not differ significantly in age or IQ. We measured bulk (gray + white matter) volume of the AH using manual tracing (MEASURE). We first compared the volume of AH between individuals with Asperger syndrome and controls and then investigated age-related differences. We compared differences in anatomy before, and after, correcting for whole brain size. There was no significant between group differences in whole brain volume. However, individuals with Asperger syndrome had a significantly larger raw bulk volume of total (P<0.01), right (P<0.01), and left amygdala (P<0.05); and when corrected for overall brain size, total (P<0.05), and right amygdala (P<0.01). There was a significant group difference in aging of left amygdala; controls, but not individuals with Asperger syndrome, had a significant age-related increase in volume (r = 0.486, P<0.01, and r = 0.007, P = 0.97, z = 1.995). There were no significant group differences in volume or age-related effects in hippocampus. Individuals with Asperger syndrome have significant differences fro…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Autism spectrum disorder has been associated with enlargement of the amygdala.
“At the same time, ASD has been associated with enlargement of the amygdala [2-4].”
From Functional autonomic nervous system profile in children with autism spectrum disorder (2014) · cites this paper as [4]
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 93 · Cited by 63
- Authors
- Murphy, C. M., Deeley, Q., Daly, E. M., Ecker, C., O'Brien, F. M., Hallahan, B., Loth, E., Toal, F., Reed, S., Hales, S., Robertson, D. M., Craig, M. C., Mullins, D., Barker, G. J., Lavender, T., Johnston, P., Murphy, K. C., & Murphy, D. G.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Murphy, Clodagh M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Autism Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-09-21
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-12
- ISSN
- 1939-3792 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-3806
- OpenAlex
- W2029345460
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 93
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Autism Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Johns Hopkins University
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (RP-PG-0606-1045)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome, amygdala, hippocampus, brain volume, brain aging, brain morphometry, neuroanatomy
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aging, Amygdala, Brain Mapping, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, United Kingdom, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Middle Aged, Asperger Syndrome, Imaging, Three-Dimensional, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
