Empirical normative models to identify patterns of anomalous white matter in autism spectrum disorder

Normative modeling offers a promising approach for better characterization of brain differences in heterogeneous populations. In this study, empirical normative modeling was applied to characterize white matter regional heterogeneity of DTI measurements in adolescents and young adults with more cognitively-and-verbally able autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to an age matched cohort of typically developing controls. The results of this study demonstrated that the individual differences in DTI measurements in many JHU white matter regions are extremely heterogeneous across the ASD cohort. Hierarchical clustering analysis revealed three groups of white matter regions with similarity patterns across six subgroups within ASD.