Asperger's and Autism Differences?

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Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 3:01 am    
Post subject: ...
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This is an abstract I copied from The Archives
of General Psychiatry. Quite interesting. Would
have liked to read the full text (had to pay for it
though).

Investigation of Neuroanatomical Differences
Between Autism and Asperger Syndrome

Linda J. Lotspeich, MD; Hower Kwon, MD; Cynthia
M. Schumann, BS; Susanna L. Fryer, BA; Beth L.
Goodlin-Jones, PhD; Michael H. Buonocore, PhD;
Cathy R. Lammers, MD; David G. Amaral, PhD;
Allan L. Reiss, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004;61:291-298.

ABSTRACT:

Background Autism and Asperger syndrome
(ASP) are neurobiological conditions with overlapping
behavioral symptoms and of unknown etiologies.
Results from previous autism neuroimaging studies
have been difficult to replicate, possibly owing to site
differences in subject samples, scanning procedures,
and image-processing methods. We sought (1) to
determine whether low-functioning autism (LFA; IQ<70),
high-functioning autism (HFA; IQ>=70), and ASP
constitute distinct biological entities as evidenced by
neuroanatomical measures, and (2) to assess for
intersite differences.

Methods Case-control study examining coronally
oriented 124-section spoiled gradient echo images
acquired on 3 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
systems, and processed by BrainImage 5.X.
Participants were recruited and underwent scanning
at 2 academic medicine departments. Participants
included 4 age-matched groups of volunteer boys
aged 7.8 to 17.9 years (13 patients with LFA, 18
with HFA, 21 with ASP, and 21 control subjects),
and 3 volunteer adults for neuroimaging reliability.
Main outcome measures included volumetric
measures of total, white, and gray matter for
cerebral and cerebellar tissues.

Results Intersite differences were seen for subject
age, IQ, and cerebellum measures. Cerebral gray
matter volume was enlarged in both HFA and LFA
compared with controls (P = .009 and P = .04,
respectively). Cerebral gray matter volume in ASP
was intermediate between that of HFA and controls,
but nonsignificant. Exploratory analyses revealed a
negative correlation between cerebral gray matter
volume and performance IQ within HFA but not ASP.
A positive correlation between cerebral white matter
volume and performance IQ was observed within ASP
but not HFA.

Conclusions Lack of replication between previous
autism MRI studies could be due to intersite differences
in MRI systems and subjects' age and IQ. Cerebral
gray tissue findings suggest that ASP is on the mild
end of the autism spectrum. However, exploratory
assessments of brain-IQ relationships reveal differences
between HFA and ASP, indicating that these conditions
may be neurodevelopmentally different when patterns
of multiple measures are examined. Further investigations
of brain-behavior relationships are indicated to confirm
these findings.

From Pyraxis!........
I would love to see a more detailed MRI study which
presents the same tasks to ASP and HFA groups and
then compares which areas of the brain are active in
each group. For instance, carrying out a short conversation,
reading a passage of text, doing a math problem,
recognizing a face, recognizing emotional expression,
etc. I suspect that there would be some significant
differences between ASP's and HFA's, and between
both and NT's.

The classic image of an Aspie is a person who relies on
logic, facts, and literal meaning, sees the part before the
whole, and has trouble recognizing and/or expressing
emotion. The classic Autie relies on pattern and intuition,
finds unusual ways of learning (like Ghosthunter's pictoral
approach), and communicates more through metaphor and
imagery than straightforward logic. (Is this an accurate
summary, people, or am I missing things?)

Both can have lower and higher degrees of functioning.
I know the speech delay is considered the key difference
between ASP and HFA but I wonder if that simplifies the
issue too much. How much is a speech delay dependent
on overall IQ and how much on autism-related sensory
issues? Right now one of the official criteria of Asperger's
is an average to high IQ, but to me that seems suspiciously
like saying autism is necessarily correlated with mental
retardation, when they are two entirely separate issues.

Sophist
Blue Jay
Joined: Apr 24, 2005
Posts: 93
Location: St. Louis
Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 9:43 am    
Post subject: ...
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Yes, "grey matter can be understood as the parts of
the brain responsible for information processing;
whereas, white matter is responsible for information
transmission. In addition, grey matter does not have
a myelin sheath and does not regenerate after injury
unlike white matter".

You know, with HFA I think there is also a large spectrum
within itself. And I noticed in the abstract of the study that
they listed only LFA and HFA and not any sort of moderate
range. I wonder where this study's HFAers fell along the line
of functioning. Because, as I have said, I have met some
HFAers who I would have thought were AS if they hadn't
eventually told me. So, I wonder how High-Functioning
their HFAers were...

BeeBee said


.

And I thought that a bit careless of them. It felt as though it was an attempt to create a panic. And I think there will be more attention paid to ASDs in general perhaps because of NBC's role, but it was completely false reporting despite any positive outcomes.

That did piss me off, let me tell you. I watched just a little and got frustrated because they seemed to only show kids who were LFA not kids who were across the spectrum. Great. What a way to confuse the world even more as most people think of Autism as the LFA kind. Then anyone else that is dx, laypeople think immediately the dx is incorrect and that overzealous parents want their kids labeled (could be true with very few but not most). I wanted to see more HFA and AS on there. One whole week and nothing regarding some strengths. It was more of a "poor kids" and "poor parents" type of thing, I felt.