Amygdala and hippocampal contributions to broad autism phenotype: Project Ice Storm
PMC13039455
· 10.1038/s41398-026-03918-6
Gap Declaration
After residualization, the association with right CMA volume became non-significant, whereas the associations with hippocampal volume as well as amygdala and hippocampal functional connectivity remained significant, supporting the robustness of our findings. A further limitation is the absence of a control group with similar levels of BAP traits but without a prenatal stressor. Without such a comparison, it remains unclear whether the neural markers identified in this unique context can generalize to typical autism populations, potentially limiting their diagnostic or therapeutic relevance. Therefore, the results need to be replicated in non-PNMS-exposed autistic samples. Despite the limitations, some strengths are inherent in this study.
Abstract
Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) increases the risk for autism, and individuals with autism inconsistently exhibit increased or decreased volumes and functional connectivity of the whole amygdala and the whole hippocampus. Given heterogeneous structures of the amygdala and hippocampus and the heterogeneity of autism symptoms, it is worth examining how their subregions contribute to different autism phenotypes. T1-weighted and resting-state functional MRI data were acquired from 32 young adults of mothers who were pregnant during, or within 3 months of, the 1998 Quebec ice storm. Their broad autism phenotype (BAP) was self-reported, including aloof personality, pragmatic language impairment and rigid personality. This sample has a wide range of scores on the BAP Questionnaire. Volumes of the…
Conclusions / Discussion
Discussion This study examined associations between the severity of BAP traits and the volumes and functional connectivity of amygdala nuclei and hippocampal subfields in young adults. All participants in this sample were born following a natural disaster and, while a nonclinical sample, there was considerable variance in the severity of BAP traits which allowed us to uncover correlational associations with amygdala and hippocampal structure and function. Our results demonstrate that it is critical to study the different subdomains of BAP traits separately since we found different patterns in their associations with amygdala and hippocampal volumes and functional connectivity, discussed as below. First, we found no correlations between the overall BAP severity and the volumes and functional connectivity of the amygdala and hippocampal subregions. The lack of association with BLA volume and connectivity echoes previous studies reporting no link between the severity of autism total score and BLA functional connectivity, whereas the severity of one specific subdomain of autism symptoms (e.g., social deficits) was associated with BLA volume and functional connectivity in autistic indiv…
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