Evaluation of White Matter Tracts in Autistic Individuals: A Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies

Many cognitive and social deficits in autism are caused by abnormal functional connections between brain networks, which are manifested by impaired integrity of white matter tracts. White matter tracts are like the "highways" of the brain, which allow fast and efficient communication in different areas of the brain. The purpose of this article is to review the results of autism studies that have used diffusion tensor images (DTI). Diffusion tensor images is a neuroimaging technique to examine the integrity of tracts.

The results of these studies suggest that neural tracts can be abnormal in people with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to impaired white matter integrity. Thus, changes in these tracts in the brains of people with ASD are helpful in identifying individual differences. Although most studies have reported decreased FA and increased MD, RD, and AD in white matter tracts, some studies have reported increased FA or no significant difference between the control and autistic groups.