White matter volume in the brainstem and inferior parietal lobule is related to motor performance in children with autism spectrum disorder: A voxel-based morphometry study.
Less white matter in the brainstem and left inferior parietal lobule may explain why many autistic kids move clumsily.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hanaie et al. (2016) scanned autistic and non-autistic children. They used voxel-based morphometry to measure white matter volume.
The team focused on the brainstem and the left inferior parietal lobule. They asked if smaller volume in these spots links to weaker motor skills.
What they found
Autistic children had less white matter in the brainstem and left inferior parietal lobule. They also scored lower on motor tests.
Lower volume matched poorer performance. The result points to brain wiring as one driver of clumsy movement in autism.
How this fits with other research
Adams et al. (2021) extends this picture. They saw weak connections between the right cerebellum and the same left inferior parietal spot. Weak links tracked with more severe autism traits.
Li et al. (2022) pools 33 imaging studies. The meta-analysis confirms widespread white-matter problems in autistic brains, especially on the left side.
Dolezal et al. (2010) seems to clash at first. They found white-matter loss in adults with Asperger syndrome across many regions, not just motor spots. The difference is age and method: adults, wider scan, different technique. The papers still agree that white-matter integrity is reduced in autism.
Why it matters
You now have brain-based evidence that motor trouble in autism is real and linked to specific wiring. When a child struggles to catch a ball or tie shoes, the issue may be neural, not lazy.
Use this to justify motor goals in the ISP. Add fine-motor drills, balance games, or cerebellar-challenging tasks. Track progress: better motor skills may echo stronger white-matter use, even if you cannot scan it.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many studies have reported poor motor performance in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, the underlying brain mechanisms remain unclear. Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested that abnormalities of the white matter (WM) are related to the features of ASD. In this study, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to investigate which WM regions correlate with motor performance in children with ASD, and whether the WM volume in those brain regions differed between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children. The subjects included 19 children with ASD and 20 TD controls. Motor performance was assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2 (M-ABC 2). Children with ASD showed poorer motor performance than did the controls. There was a significant positive correlation between the total test score on the M-ABC 2 and the volume of WM in the brainstem and WM adjacent to the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG). In addition, compared with the TD controls, children with ASD had a decreased volume of WM in the brainstem and adjacent to the left intraparietal sulcus, which is close to the SMG. These findings suggest that structural changes in the WM in the brainstem and left inferior parietal lobule may contribute to poor motor performance in children with ASD. Autism Res 2016, 9: 981-992. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2016 · doi:10.1002/aur.1605