Charlton Cheung1, Kevin Yu1,
Antonia Yam2,
1Psychiatry, University of
Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong; 2Neuroscience, University of
Bristol, United Kingdom; 3Psychology, University of Cardiff,
United Kingdom; 4University of Harvard, United States; 5Psychiatry,
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong; 6State Key
Laboratory for Brain & Cognitive Sciences; 7Key State
Laboratory for Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Minor Physical Anomalies (MPAs) arise during the first trimester of prenatal life and occur more frequently in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. We measured intra-orbital distances from T1 weighted images of children with autism aged 6 16 years and typically developing peers. We report a significant increase in intra-orbital distance in autism. Using voxel-wise linear regression analysis intra-orbital distances were found to positively correlate with the volume of inferio-temporal regions including the amygdala in the autism group only. We suggest that intra-orbital MPA may provide a fossil record of much earlier childhood brain expansion in autism.
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