White matter microstructural and morphometric alterations in autism: implications for intellectual capabilities

Table 1 Demographic data and clinical features of participants

	Typically developing control (TDC) n = 38		Intellectually able ASD (ASD-IA) n = 34		Intellectually impaired ASD (ASD-II) n = 31		P value	Post hoc test
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Sex (M:F)	30:8		30:4		29:2		0.20^a	–
Age (years)	17.3	5.65	15.9	5.46	17.3	6.41	0.55^b	–
RMS (mm)	0.399	0.197	0.407	0.184	0.463	0.216	0.40^c	–
Total outliers (%)	1.28	0.69	1.48	0.72	1.63	0.95	0.15^c	–
Medication (Y:N)	0:38		14:20		9:22		0.31^a	–^d
Comorbidity (Y:N)	0:38		26:8		24:7		0.93^a	–^d
ICV (cm³)	1604.7	142.1	1588.8	114.5	1626.2	104.7	0.47^b	–
Cognition and symptoms
FSIQ (WISC/WAIS-IV)	112.2	11.7	104.5	14.2	65.7	13.0	< 0.001^c	ASD-II < ASD-IA, TDC
NVFIQ (Leiter-R)	121.6	10.2	115.0	18.3	77.6	26.3	< 0.001^c	ASD-II < ASD-IA, TDC
VABS-ABC	113.5	15.3	89.2	15.1	66.7	9.6	< 0.001^c	ASD-II < ASD-IA < TDC
BRIEF-GEC	92.3	19.1	155.3	28.5	152.5	25.5	< 0.001^c	ASD-II, ASD-IA > TDC
SRS-Total	18.0	10.4	87.6	27.0	93.8	23.3	< 0.001^c	ASD-II, ASD-IA > TDC
ADOS-2 CSS	N/A	N/A	5.0	2.1	6.8	2.1	0.002^c	ASD-II > ASD-IA^d

RMS Relative root-mean-square of framewise displacement during diffusion MRI, ICV Intracranial volume, FSIQ Full-scale intelligence quotient, WISC-IV Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—4th Edition, WAIS-IV Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—4th Edition, NVFIQ Nonverbal full-scale intelligence quotient, Leiter-R Leiter international performance scale-revised, VABS-ABC Vineland adaptive behavior scales adaptive behavior composite, BRIEF-GEC Behavior rating inventory of executive function global executive composite, SRS-Total Social responsiveness scales total raw score, ADOS-2 CSS Autism diagnostic observation schedule 2 calibrated severity score
^aChi-square; ^bANOVA; ^cKruskal–Wallis; ^dcomparison between ASD-IA and ASD-II

ISSN: 2040-2392