Neurostructural Endophenotypes In Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

(from the chapter) Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of behaviourally defined neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood onset characterised by impairments in communication and social reciprocity as well as a range of distinctive non-social symptoms. Despite including some of the most heritable disorders in psychiatry, it has proved difficult to identify risk genes for ASD, and to build models for the neurobiological mechanisms through which putative risk factors might operate to give rise to the ASD behavioural phenotype. In this chapter we detail why measures of brain anatomy derived from structural magnetic resonance images have been put forward as potential alternative endophenotypes that might increase our ability to identify risk genes and associated brain mechanisms for ASD. We then examine the progress that has been made so far in identifying neurostructural endophenotypes for ASD, and consider some of the challenges and opportunities presented by this new line of research in ASD neurobiology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).