scholarly journals Early patterns of functional brain development associated with autism spectrum disorder in tuberous sclerosis complex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Dickinson ◽  
Kandice J. Varcin ◽  
Mustafa Sahin ◽  
Charles A. Nelson ◽  
Shafali S. Jeste

Lay AbstractAround half of infants with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) develop autism. Here, using EEG, we find that there is a reduction in communication between brain regions during infancy in TSC, and that the infants who show the largest reductions are those who later develop autism. Being able to identify infants who show early signs of disrupted brain development may improve the timing of early prediction and interventions in TSC, and also help us to understand how early brain changes lead to autism.AbstractTuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disorder that confers a high risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with behavioral predictors of ASD emerging early in life. Deviations in structural and functional neuronal connectivity are highly implicated in both TSC and ASD.For the first time, we explore whether electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of network function precede or predict the emergence of ASD in TSC. We determine whether altered brain function (1) is present in infancy in TSC, (2) differentiates infants with TSC based on ASD diagnostic status, and (3) is associated with later cognitive function.We studied 35 infants with TSC (N=35), and a group of typically developing infants (n=20) at 12 and 24 months of age. Infants with TSC were later subdivided into ASD and non-ASD groups based on clinical evaluation. We measured features of spontaneous alpha oscillations (6-12Hz) that are closely associated with neural network development: alpha power, alpha phase coherence (APC) and peak alpha frequency (PAF).Infants with TSC demonstrated reduced interhemispheric APC compared to controls at 12 months of age, and these differences were found to be most pronounced at 24 months in the infants who later developed ASD. Across all infants, PAF at 24 months was associated with verbal and non-verbal cognition at 36 months.Associations between early network function and later neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes highlight the potential utility of early scalable EEG markers to identify infants with TSC requiring additional targeted intervention initiated very early in life.

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 2199-2214
Author(s):  
Benoit Scherrer ◽  
Anna K Prohl ◽  
Maxime Taquet ◽  
Kush Kapur ◽  
Jurriaan M Peters ◽  
...  

Abstract Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by benign tumors throughout the body; it is generally diagnosed early in life and has a high prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), making it uniquely valuable in studying the early development of autism, before neuropsychiatric symptoms become apparent. One well-documented deficit in ASD is an impairment in face processing. In this work, we assessed whether anatomical connectivity patterns of the fusiform gyrus, a central structure in face processing, capture the risk of developing autism early in life. We longitudinally imaged TSC patients at 1, 2, and 3 years of age with diffusion compartment imaging. We evaluated whether the anatomical connectivity fingerprint of the fusiform gyrus was associated with the risk of developing autism measured by the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI). Our findings suggest that the fusiform gyrus connectivity captures the risk of developing autism as early as 1 year of age and provides evidence that abnormal fusiform gyrus connectivity increases with age. Moreover, the identified connections that best capture the risk of developing autism involved the fusiform gyrus and limbic and paralimbic regions that were consistent with the ASD phenotype, involving an increased number of left-lateralized structures with increasing age.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1758-1773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Dickinson ◽  
Kandice J. Varcin ◽  
Mustafa Sahin ◽  
Charles A. Nelson ◽  
Shafali S. Jeste

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 961
Author(s):  
Kanij Fatema ◽  
Mizanur Rahman ◽  
Shaheen Akhter ◽  
Roushan Jahan

Background: Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder where there is multisystem involvement. Most important manifestations are neurological and psychiatric disorders. These disorders should be detected timely and addressed adequately. The common psychiatric disorders are autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability (ID), learning disorder etc. This study has been done to describe the pattern of psychiatric disorders in children with TSC.Methods: This is an observational study taken place in a tertiary care hospital taken place on Children of 0-18 years of age. The study subjects were 84 patients with TSC. Detail history and physical examination had been done along with neuroimaging, EEG and target organs screening. Different psychometric tool was used for psychiatric evaluation.  Results: Total 84 patients were included in this study, mean age was 7+3.96 years, 54% were female. Physical finding were as follows: ash leaf spot, shagreen patch, adenoma sebaceum, cafe au lait spot, rhabdomyoma, renal cyst and angiomyolipoma etc.  Seventy patients had epilepsy, most common being focal epilepsy (45.7%), 17.1% had epileptic spasm. Fifty percent patients had developmental delay. Regarding psychiatric disorders, most common disorder was ADHD in 27.38%, ASD in 23.81% and both in 10.71%. ID was found in 20.24% study subjects. Early onset of seizure was associated with more psychiatric disorders.Conclusions: Neuropsychiatric manifestations of TSC are diverse and often are poorly addressed. The most commonly found disorders in this study were ADHD, ASD and ID. Early onset of seizure was associated with the psychiatric disorders in TSC.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Tye ◽  
Kandice Varcin ◽  
Patrick Bolton ◽  
Shafali Spurling Jeste

Purpose – Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder with a high prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet no single genetic, neurological or neurophysiological risk marker is necessary or sufficient to increase risk for ASD. This paper aims to discuss the utility of adopting a developmental perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The increasing number of TSC infants presenting with abnormalities prenatally provides a unique opportunity to study risk pathways to ASD from birth. Here, the authors review findings to date that support the investigation of infants with TSC to further our understanding of typical and atypical development. Findings – Evidence has accumulated from studies of infants at familial risk for ASD (“baby siblings”) to suggest that early markers of ASD are present in the first year of life. The early waves of prospective studies of infants with TSC indicate dynamic changes in developmental trajectories to ASD and are likely to provide insight into cascading effects of brain “insult” early in development. Emerging evidence of phenotypic and biological homology between syndromic and idiopathic cases of ASD supports the notion of a convergence of risk factors on a final common pathway in ASD. Originality/value – The delineation of brain-based biomarkers of risk, prediction and treatment response in TSC will be critical in aiding the development of targeted intervention and prevention strategies for those infants at high risk of poorer developmental outcomes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 95-96
Author(s):  
Fabricio Andrés Lasso Andrade ◽  
Jorge Alejandro Cadena Arteaga ◽  
Ángela Maria Fajardo Arteaga ◽  
Viviana Lizeth Echeverry Morillo ◽  
David Alfredo Acevedo Vargas ◽  
...  

Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) also known as Bournneville disease. TSC is a multisystemic genetic disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance, of variable expression, which is mainly characterized by the presence of benign tumors or hamartomas in the nervous system and skin, but which may also be present in the heart, kidney, lung and other organs. The most frequent symptom is epilepsy, affecting 80-90% of patients with TSC which manifests itself in childhood between 1 to 3 years of age. We present a case of sporadic onset tuberous sclerosis with epilepsy that had a causal link with TSC after admission to the emergency room in a convulsive status.


Author(s):  
Anna K. Prohl ◽  
◽  
Benoit Scherrer ◽  
Xavier Tomas-Fernandez ◽  
Peter E. Davis ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is prevalent in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), occurring in approximately 50% of patients, and is hypothesized to be caused by disruption of neural circuits early in life. Tubers, or benign hamartomas distributed stochastically throughout the brain, are the most conspicuous of TSC neuropathology, but have not been consistently associated with ASD. Widespread neuropathology of the white matter, including deficits in myelination, neuronal migration, and axon formation, exist and may underlie ASD in TSC. We sought to identify the neural circuits associated with ASD in TSC by identifying white matter microstructural deficits in a prospectively recruited, longitudinally studied cohort of TSC infants. Methods TSC infants were recruited within their first year of life and longitudinally imaged at time of recruitment, 12 months of age, and at 24 months of age. Autism was diagnosed at 24 months of age with the ADOS-2. There were 108 subjects (62 TSC-ASD, 55% male; 46 TSC+ASD, 52% male) with at least one MRI and a 24-month ADOS, for a total of 187 MRI scans analyzed (109 TSC-ASD; 78 TSC+ASD). Diffusion tensor imaging properties of multiple white matter fiber bundles were sampled using a region of interest approach. Linear mixed effects modeling was performed to test the hypothesis that infants who develop ASD exhibit poor white matter microstructural integrity over the first 2 years of life compared to those who do not develop ASD. Results Subjects with TSC and ASD exhibited reduced fractional anisotropy in 9 of 17 white matter regions, sampled from the arcuate fasciculus, cingulum, corpus callosum, anterior limbs of the internal capsule, and the sagittal stratum, over the first 2 years of life compared to TSC subjects without ASD. Mean diffusivity trajectories did not differ between groups. Conclusions Underconnectivity across multiple white matter fiber bundles develops over the first 2 years of life in subjects with TSC and ASD. Future studies examining brain-behavior relationships are needed to determine how variation in the brain structure is associated with ASD symptoms.


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