Changes in the sulcal size associated with autism spectrum disorder revealed by sulcal morphometry.
Bigger sulci in left insula and right IPS may flag ASD in teens, but the finding complements—not contradicts—other brain imaging work.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Shokouhi et al. (2012) scanned the brains of adolescents with autism and matched controls. They measured the depth, length, and surface area of cortical sulci. The team focused on the left insula and right intraparietal sulcus.
What they found
Teens with ASD had larger sulci in two key spots. The left insula showed more surface area. The right IPS showed longer folds. These differences suggest altered brain folding patterns.
How this fits with other research
Day et al. (2021) extends this work to the mid-fusiform sulcus. They link greater sulcal variability to face-processing problems across a wider age range.
Tu et al. (2016) seems to disagree. They found thinner insula cortex in typical teens with high autism traits. The difference is measurement: Mahsa looked at sulcal size, Pei-Chi at cortical thickness. Both can be true.
Braden et al. (2017) pushes the age window further. They show middle-aged adults with ASD still have brain differences, but in hippocampal volume rather than sulci.
Why it matters
You can't scan a client's brain every session, but you can note that visible sulcal differences are part of the ASD profile. When you see teens who struggle with interoception or spatial tasks, remember their left insula and right IPS may be structured differently. This biomarker work supports early, intensive ABA while the brain is still plastic.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add interoception and spatial skills to your teen's baseline assessment checklist.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex, neurodevelopmental disorder with various structural abnormalities for different patient groups. Because of the heterogeneity of the disorder, several biomarkers have been suggested so far. Here, we explore the potential of sulcal surface and length as biomarkers. Three-dimensional T1-weighted images of 15 adolescents of normal intelligence with ASD and 15 age-, sex-, and intelligence quotient-matched control adolescents were analysed using Brainvisa 4.0 (http://www.brainvisa.info), which automatically extracts the cortical folds and labels them as 59 sulcal pieces. For each sulcus, the surface, length, and mean geodesic depth were computed using morphometry analysis within this software package. General linear model was conducted to compare the estimated values for the two groups, ASD and control. In the ASD group, the left insula and the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) had significantly higher values for surface and length, respectively. Nonetheless for all sulcal pieces, the mean geodesic depth was not significantly different between the two groups. Our results suggest that sulcal surface and length can have correlation with morphological changes of cortex in ASD. Greater surface area and length in insula and IPS, respectively, may reflect greater folding. This could result in greater separation of functions with an impact upon the integrative functions of these regions.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2012 · doi:10.1002/aur.1232