Meta-analysis and systematic review of the literature characterizing auditory mismatch negativity in individuals with autism

Abstract

A number of past studies have used mismatch negativity (MMN) to identify auditory processing deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our meta-analysis compared MMN responses for individuals with ASD and typically developing controls (TD). We analyzed 67 experiments across 22 publications that employed passive, auditory-based MMN paradigms with ASD and TD participants. Most studies lacked design characteristics that would lead to an accurate description of the MMN. Variability between experiments measuring MMN amplitude was smaller when limited to studies that counterbalanced stimuli. Reduced MMN amplitude was found among young children with ASD compared to controls and in experiments that used nonspeech sounds. Still, few studies included adolescents or those with below-average verbal IQ. Most studies suffered from small sample sizes, and aggregating these data did not reveal significant group differences. This analysis points to a need for research focused specifically on understudied ASD samples using carefully designed MMN experiments. Study of individual differences in MMN may provide further insights into distinct subgroups within the heterogeneous ASD population.

Left Hemispheric Deficit in the Sustained Neuromagnetic Response to Periodic Click Trains in Children with ASD.

“…The undisturbed functioning of the primary auditory cortex in children with ASD is well in line with numerous electrophysiological evidence on their typical, or even enhanced processing of frequency/pitch of pure tones [69][70][71] for review) that mainly relies upon A1 neural circuitry. On the other hand, the SF abnormalities suggestive of abnormal functioning of the 'pitch processing center' in our participants with ASD, generally agree with the conclusion derived from the comprehensive meta-analysis of mismatchnegativity (MMN) studies in autism [71]. The results of this meta-analysis point to a weak neural encoding of spectrally and/or temporally complex non-speech stimuli in the prepubertal children with ASD.…”

“…Poor quality of MEG recording in children with ASD (see e.g. [71] for discussion) is unlikely to explain the group differences. Indeed, the ASSR phase consistency did not differ between the ASD and NT groups ( Figure 4), pointing to comparable SNR.…”

Specific Functional Connectivity Patterns of Middle Temporal Gyrus Subregions in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…According to the results of functional characterization, the maMTG.R was highly associated with hearing and language, which are two vital components of auditory processing. Although many researchers identified auditory processing deficits in adults with ASD and hypothesized that there is a common disruption in the neural network associated with auditory processing in ASD [Bomba & Pang, 2004;Mamashli et al, 2017;Marco, Hinkley, Hill, & Nagarajan, 2011;Schwartz, Shinn-Cunningham, & Tager-Flusberg, 2018], the main brain regions involved in the network are still an open question. Our findings provide evidence that the disruptions of the maMTG.R might be associated with auditory processing deficits in adults with ASD.…”

Individuals with autism have no detectable deficit in neural markers of prediction error when presented with auditory rhythms of varied temporal complexity

“…There is a large body of literature on other auditory mismatch negativity paradigms in individuals with autism that reports conflicting results. Two recent systematic review and meta-analyses of auditory mismatch negativity studies identified an overall trend toward less pronounced MMN responses to various types of deviant auditory stimuli in individuals with ASD as compared to controls (Chen, Hsieh, Lin, Chan, & Cheng, 2020;Schwartz, Shinn-Cunningham, & Tager-Flusberg, 2018). Yet, these same reviews also described significant variability across studies in the strength and direction of this effect (Chen et al, 2020;Schwartz et al, 2018).…”

“…Two recent systematic review and meta-analyses of auditory mismatch negativity studies identified an overall trend toward less pronounced MMN responses to various types of deviant auditory stimuli in individuals with ASD as compared to controls (Chen, Hsieh, Lin, Chan, & Cheng, 2020;Schwartz, Shinn-Cunningham, & Tager-Flusberg, 2018). Yet, these same reviews also described significant variability across studies in the strength and direction of this effect (Chen et al, 2020;Schwartz et al, 2018). An advantage of MMN paradigms is that no explicit behavioral response by the participant to the stimuli is required, thus allowing for the inclusion of individuals with a range of ages and cognitive and verbal abilities.…”