A Volumetric and Functional Connectivity MRI Study of Brain Arginine-Vasopressin Pathways in Autistic Children

Dysfunction of brain-derived arginine-vasopressin（AVP） systems may be involved in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder（ASD）. Certain regions such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus are known to contain either AVP neurons or terminals and may play an important role in regulating complex social behaviors.The present study was designed to investigate the concomitant changes in autistic behaviors, circulating AVP levels, and the structure and functional connectivity（FC） of speci？c brain regions in autistic children compared with typically developing children（TDC） aged from 3 to5 years. The results showed：（1） children with ASD had a signi？cantly increased volume in the left amygdala and left hippocampus, and a signi？cantly decreased volume in the bilateral hypothalamus compared to TDC, and these were positively correlated with plasma AVP level.（2） Autistic children had a negative FC between the left amygdala and the bilateral supramarginal gyri compared to TDC. The degree of the negative FC between amygdala and supramarginal gyrus was associated with a higher score on the clinical autism behavior checklist.（3） The degree of negative FC between left amygdala and left supramarginal gyrus was associated with a lowering of the circulating AVP concentration in boys with ASD.（4） Autistic children showed a higher FC between left hippocampus and right subcortical area compared to TDC.（5） The circulating AVP was negatively correlated with the visual and listening response score of the childhood autism rating scale.These results strongly suggest that changes in structure and FC in brain regions containing AVP may be involved in the etiology of autism.

The fear of having two sons:a noteworthy preference for the gender of children

This paper argues that“the fear of having two sons”is a gender structure phenom-enon that causes anxiety for some Chinese families.To prove the existence of such a fear in some families,this paper considers three aspects:the ideal gender structure of children,women’s childbearing plan for second children and their actual child-bearing behavior.Data for nine provinces is taken from the China Fertility Survey of 2017.This paper finds that:(1)except for having no children,2 sons and 0 daughters is the most undesired gender structure;(2)among those who expect 1 son and 1 daughter,women whose first child is a son are less likely to plan to have a second child than those whose first child is a daughter;(3)among those who expect 1 son and 1 daughter,women with a son as the first child are less likely to have a second child than those with a daughter.These findings prove that,at present,the phenom-enon of the fear of having two sons does exist in some Chinese families.Finally,this paper summarizes how the attitudes of Chinese families towards having sons have changed since the 1950s from“a hope for having many sons”to“a desire for at least one son”and finally to“the fear of having two sons.”The paper also discusses the significance of the fear of having two sons phenomenon in terms of improving the proximate determinants of low fertility model.