Abstract #4219

Do the Language Deficit in Autism & Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have a Common Neuro-Anatomical Substrate?

Judith S. Verhoeven¹, Elena Prodi^2,3, Sabine Deprez³, Nathalie Rommel⁴, Alexander Leemans⁵, Wim Van Hecke³, Ronald Peeters³, Paul De Cock¹, Lieven Lagae¹, Stefan Sunaert³

¹Pediatrics, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ²Radiology, Istituto Neurologico Besta, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; ³Radiology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ⁴Neurosciences, Exp ORL, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ⁵Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Clinical criteria make a clear distinction between primary speech and language disorders, as SLI, and those occurring as a part of a more global developmental problem, as ASD. However, in practice, these diagnostic boundaries are not always that clear, leading to the hypothesis that both might represent a spectrum of the same disorder. In this study, we examined the neuro-structural basis of language impairment in SLI and ASD using DTI of the SLF. We found a significant reduction of mean SLF-FA and increase of mean SLF-MD in SLI children compared to controls, which was not the case in the ASD children. We conclude that the structural differences in the SLF may indicate a different etiological substrate.