Anxiety in children and youth with autism spectrum disorder and the association with amygdala subnuclei structure.
Abagail Hennessy, Diane Seguin, Susana Correa and 4 others
PMID 36278283WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism showed higher anxiety on all four measures compared to non-autistic peers.
In the autism group, higher parent-reported anxiety linked to larger right basal and smaller right paralaminar amygdala volumes. Whole amygdala size showed no such link.
Key findings
01Participants with an ASD diagnosis displayed elevated anxiety on all anxiety measures when compared with non-autistic participants.
02Within the ASD group, larger right basal volumes and smaller paralaminar volumes predicted higher SCARED-P scores.
03No association between whole amygdala volumes and the anxiety measures was evident.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if amygdala differences cause anxiety or result from it. Standardized anxiety measures may confound ASD symptoms with anxiety symptoms, as some behaviors overlap. The sample had a high male-to-female ratio (77 males vs 18 females in the ASD group), limiting generalizability to girls. No association was found between amygdala volumes and child self-reported anxiety, suggesting the structural link may be specific to parent-observed symptoms.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding came from gifts to the Child Mind Institute and NIMH awards. The funders were not involved in the study design, analysis, or manuscript preparation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that larger amygdala volumes are associated with anxiety in children with autism. The study found no link between whole amygdala volume and anxiety. Instead, the association was specific to subnuclei (larger right basal, smaller right paralaminar) and was only significant for parent-reported anxiety, not child self-reported anxiety.