Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
16
ROBUST NEUROIMAGING-BASED
CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES
OF AUTISTIC VS. TYPICALLY
DEVELOPING BRAIN
Rachid Fahmi, Ayman El-Baz
∗
, Hossam Abd El-Munim,
Alaa E. Abdel-Hakim, and Aly A. Farag
Computer Vision and Image Processing Laboratory,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
and *Bioengineering Department, University of Louisville,
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Manuel F. Casanova
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by social deficits, impaired communica-
tion, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior (American Psychiatry Association,
2000). Various neuropathological studies of autism have revealed abnormalities in sev-
eral brain regions. Increased head size was the first observed characteristic in children
with autism. According to the published studies, different anatomical structures of the
brain have been identified as being involved in the abnormal neurodevelopment associated
with autism. Classical neuropathological studies as well as MRI structural findings are
consistent with respect to some brain structures, while observations with respect to other
structures have differed among studies. This lack of consistency may be due to the sample
size as well as to the failure to account for significant confounding factors (e.g., age, sex,
IQ, handedness). However, there is an increasing agreement from structural imaging stud-
ies on the abnormal anatomy of thewhitematter (WM) in autistic brains. In addition, deficits
