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. 2013 Jul 9;3(7):e279. doi: 10.1038/tp.2013.53

Table 3. Metabolite concentrations in BG, DLPFC and parietal cortex [1H]MRS voxels and group differences.

          ANOVA
Post hoc t-tests—P-valuesb
Region Metabolitea Narrow ASD Broader ASD Control F P-values Narrow ASD vs controls Broad ASD vs controls Broad ASD vs narrow ASD
Basal ganglia Glx 10.12 (1.14) 10.43 (1.26) 12.34 (1.45) 12.63 <0.0001c <0.001 0.001 0.25
  Cho 1.205 (0.19) 1.098 (0.14) 1.324 (0.19) 5.83 0.006d 0.212 0.004 0.44
  Cr 5.097 (0.65) 5.323 (0.53) 6.435 (1.25) 10.02 0.0003c <0.001 0.004 0.47
  NAA 5.454 (0.81) 5.486 (0.42) 6.458 (1.52) 4.54 0.017d 0.030 0.045 0.32
                   
DLPFC Glx 7.492 (1.11) 7.156 (1.51) 8.007 (1.42) 1.36 0.27 0.32
  Cho 1.129 (0.21) 1.110 (0.16) 1.271 (0.27) 2.35 0.11 0.93
  Cr 4.074 (0.48) 4.021 (0.49) 4.602 (0.60) 5.32 0.009d 0.027 0.017 0.64
  NAA 5.954 (0.79) 5.955 (0.47) 6.660 (0.95) 4.07 0.025d 0.047 0.057 0.22
                   
Parietal Glx 10.607 (2.79) 9.790 (1.65) 11.028 (1.62) 1.31 0.28 0.41
  Cho 1.112 (0.37) 1.048 (0.13) 1.149 (0.25) 0.53 0.59 0.524
  Cr 5.461 (1.42) 5.140 (0.81) 5.382 (0.70) 0.39 0.68 0.19
  NAA 7.998 (2.32) 7.472 (0.76) 7.887 (1.06) 0.48 0.62 0.31

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; ASD, autism spectrum disorder; BG, basal ganglia; Cho, choline; Cr, creatine; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; Glx, glutamate and glutamine; [1H]MRS, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy; NAA, N-acetylaspartate.

a

Data are expressed as mean (s.d.).

b

Post hoc t-tests comparing ASD cases with controls were only performed when ANOVA was significant at uncorrected P<0.05.

c

Bold figures show values significant at P=0.05 level, with Bonferroni correction over 12 comparisons, that is, uncorrected P<0.0047.

d

Significant at P=0.05 level before Bonferroni correction.