Brain structure associated with autism-like features in a non-clinical population

Within the present studies, we used the AQ to determine autistic-like traits within healthy subjects and then performed morphometric analyses, resting state functional MRI (fMRI) analyses as well as DTI analysis to show structural and functional brain variations associated with these autistic-like traits. We analysed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 250 psychiatrically healthy subjects. We used voxel-based morphometry of T1-MRIs (Computational Anatomy Toolbox) and tract-based spatial statistics for diffusion tensor imaging data. We also analysed sets of MRI data of 233 psychiatrically healthy subjects using surface-based morphometry (SBM) and resting state fMRI data to further evaluate those brain variations. We measured not only the AQ total score but also calculated the subscale scores to get further information. With this, we wanted to evaluate if any of the correlations with brain parameters were driven by a specific subscale rather than the overall AQ score. Since the different subscale scores of the AQ represent different facets of ASD, as in different autistic-like traits, this could help us to further understand the aetiology of the disorder.