The Examination of White Matter Microstructure, Autism Traits, and Social Cognitive Abilities in Neurotypical Adults

• Main Author: Bradstreet, Lauren E.
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University 2014
• Subjects: Diffusion tensor imaging; Mentalizing; Theory of mind; Uncinate fasciculus; Inferior longitudinal fasciculus
• Online Access: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/psych_theses/127; http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1128&context=psych_theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among mentalizing abilities, self-reported autism traits, and two white matter tracts, uncinate fasciculus (UF) and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), in neurotypical adults. UF and ILF were hypothesized to connect brain regions implicated in a neuroanatomical model of mentalizing. Data were available for 24 neurotypical adults (mean age = 21.92 (4.72) years; 15 women). Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used to conduct voxelwise cross-participant comparisons of fractional anisotropy (FA) values in UF and ILF as predicted by mentalizing abilities and self-reported autism traits. Self-reported autism traits were positively related to FA values in left ILF. Results suggest that microstructural differences in left ILF are specifically involved in the expression of subclinical autism traits in neurotypical individuals.