Developmental Change in the ERP Responses to Familiar Faces in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorders Versus Typical Development

Abstract

Individuals with ASD show differences in face processing abilities from early in development. To examine whether these differences reflect an atypical versus delayed developmental trajectory, neural responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in 24 18-to 47-month-old children with ASD were compared to responses of 32 12- to 30-month-old typically developing children. Results of two experiments revealed that neural responses to faces in children with ASD resembled those observed in younger typically developing children, suggesting delayed development. Electrophysiological responses to faces were also related to parent-report of adaptive social behaviors for both children with ASD and typical development. Slower development of the face processing system in ASD may be related to reduced self-directed ‘expected’ experience with faces in early development.

Less Efficient Neural Processing Related to Irregular Sleep and Less Sustained Attention in Toddlers

“…Carver et al, 2003) or use passive tasks (e.g. Bernal, Dehaene Lambertz, Millotte, & Christophe, 2010; Luyster, Powell, Tager-Flusberg, & Nelson, 2014; Pesonen et al, 2010; Webb et al, 2011). Not only does the present study use an adapted active auditory Oddball task with toddlers, but it also has a relatively narrow age window, allowing explicit focus on neural processing in toddlers.…”

Practical Guidelines for Studying Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Psychophysiological Experiments

“…If possible, fast moving visual stimuli and flickering light should be avoided keeping in mind visual oversensitivity (Stiegler and Davis 2010) and difficulties of children with ASD in movement and speed processing (Gepner and Féron 2009) when these processes are not the target of the study. Tactile sensitivity may also impact inclusion rates when using recording methods that involve skin contact (cf., Webb et al 2011). In addition to taking into account these general guidelines, researchers should always pilot their stimuli in a small sample of children with ASD to make sure that there are no unexpected reactions to the stimuli.…”

“…Depending on the study question sometimes even two video cameras are required. The offline video analysis is very time consuming and sometimes online coding of the visual attention in ERP paradigms has been used (cf., Webb et al 2011;Dawson et al 2012) together with recording all the exceptional situations during the measurement (e.g. the parent is talking with the experimenter).…”

“…Cléry et al 2013) discrimination, in addition to atypicalities in social processing (e.g. Grice et al 2005;Senju et al 2005;Webb et al 2011). EEG has also proved sensitive to the effects of early intervention, indicating its utility as measure in clinical trials (Dawson et al 2012).…”

ASD: Psychopharmacologic Treatments and Neurophysiologic Underpinnings

“…Children with ASD show larger ERP responses to direct eye gaze, perhaps accounting for behaviors that modulate sensory input through eye contact aversion instead of more typical modulation by prefrontal dampening (Grice et al 2005; Kyllianinen et al 2006). Atypical or delayed temporal processing of social compared to nonsocial information has been found early in the development of autism (e.g., Webb et al 2006,2011) and this pattern extends through childhood and into adulthood (see Webb et al 2009 for review). Emotional cues of face stimuli also elicit altered lower order cortical processing during early development (Dawson et al 2004), but this pattern may normalize in late childhood (e.g., Wong et al 2008).…”