ABSTRACT
Abstract The striatum represents the main input station for cortical afferent connections within cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuits. These have been detailed in non-human primates and begun to be characterized with noninvasive brain imaging in humans. This chapter focuses on brain imaging research of striatal circuitry in autism. This research has been motivated by the role of striatal circuitry in a wide range of motor, cognitive and emotional processes also found to be abnormal in
Contents Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
11.1.1 Striatal anatomy and neurochemistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 11.1.2 Corticostriatal connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
11.1.2.1 Specic circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 11.1.3 Studying striatum in humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 11.1.4 Typical striatal development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
11.2 Striatal imaging in ASD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 11.2.1 Regional striatal studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
11.2.1.1 Structural imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 11.2.1.2 Functional imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
11.3 ASD striatal connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 11.3.1 Structural connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 11.3.2 Functional connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
11.4. Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
autism. Results from morphological and functional magnetic resonance imaging suggest that striatal abnormalities are implicated in restricted behaviors/interests, executive and reward dysfunctions in this population. Yet, the specic nature of striatal abnormalities in autism remains unclear. Building on the rst generation of studies summarized here, greater insights is likely to be attained with the advancements of imaging acquisition technologies and emerging analytical approaches able to capture ne-grained properties of striatal-based networks in large-scale studies able to account for the striking heterogeneity of autism.
