Altered cerebellar lobular volumes correlate with clinical deficits in siblings and children with ASD: evidence from toddlers

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social and communication skills, narrow interests, and repetitive behavior. It is known that the cerebellum plays a vital role in controlling movement and gait posture. However, recently, researchers have reported that the cerebellum may also be responsible for other functions, such as social cognition, reward, anxiety, language, and executive functions. METHODS: In this study, we ascertained volumetric differences from cerebellar lobular analysis from children with ASD, ASD siblings, and typically developing healthy controls. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 30 children were recruited, including children with ASD (N = 15; mean age = 27.67 ± 5.1 months), ASD siblings (N = 6; mean age = 17.5 ± 3.79 months), and typically developing children (N = 9; mean age = 17.67 ± 3.21 months). All the MRI data was acquired under natural sleep without using any sedative medication. We performed a correlation analysis with volumetric data and developmental and behavioral measures obtained from these children. Two-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation was performed for statistical data analysis. RESULTS: We observed intriguing findings from this study, including significantly increased gray matter lobular volumes in multiple cerebellar regions including; vermis, left and right lobule I–V, right CrusII, and right VIIb and VIIIb, respectively, in children with ASD, compared to typically developing healthy controls and ASD siblings. Multiple cerebellar lobular volumes were also significantly correlated with social quotient, cognition, language, and motor scores with children with ASD, ASD siblings, and healthy controls, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This research finding helps us understand the neurobiology of ASD and ASD-siblings, and critically advances current knowledge about the cerebellar role in ASD. However, results need to be replicated for a larger cohort from longitudinal research study in future.