Oscillatory entrainment mechanisms and anticipatory predictive processes in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Abstract

Anticipating near-future events is fundamental to adaptive behavior, whereby neural processing of predictable stimuli is significantly facilitated relative to non-predictable inputs.Neural oscillations appear to be a key anticipatory mechanism by which processing of upcoming stimuli is modified, and they often entrain to rhythmic environmental sequences. Clinical and anecdotal observations have led to the hypothesis that people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may have deficits in generating predictions in daily life, and as such, a candidate neural mechanism may be failure to adequately entrain neural activity to repetitive environmental patterns. Here, we tested this hypothesis by interrogating rhythmic entrainment both behaviorally and electrophysiologically. We recorded high-density electroencephalography in children with ASD (n=31) and Typically Developing (TD) age-and IQ-matched controls (n=20), while they reacted to an auditory target as quickly as possible. This auditory event was either preceded by predictive rhythmic visual cues, or not. Results showed that while both groups presented highly comparable evoked responses to the visual stimuli, children with ASD showed reduced neural entrainment to the rhythmic visual cues, and altered anticipation of the occurrence of these stimuli. Further, in both groups, neuro-oscillatory phase coherence correlated with behavior. These results describe neural processes that may underlie impaired event anticipation in children with ASD, and support the notion that their perception of events is driven more by instantaneous sensory inputs and less by their temporal predictability.

Looking for Consistency in an Uncertain World: Test-Retest Reliability of Neurophysiological and Behavioral Readouts in Autism

“…The task included two conditions: For the Cue condition, participants were presented with a sequence of 4 visual isochronous stimuli for a duration of 80ms 10 weeks (2.5 months). Analyses to test the hypothesis that children with ASD do not use temporally predictive information in a typical way are presented in another report in which we compare ASD data to an age matched typically developing control group(34).…”

“…Participants were recruited without regard to sex, race or ethnicity. IQ quotients for performance (PIQ), verbal (VIQ), and full-scale (FSIQ) intelligence were assessed in all of the participants using the Wechsler The task was designed to test the hypothesis that children with ASD do not use temporally predictive information in a typical way (33,34). The task included two conditions: For the Cue condition, participants were presented with a sequence of 4 visual isochronous stimuli for a duration of 80ms each presented at a Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) of 650ms, followed by an 80ms auditory stimulus, presented 650ms after the onset of the last visual cue.…”

“…Here we focus on the sensory evoked and behavioral responses to evaluate their reliability between two data recording sessions separated by a minimum of 10 weeks (2.5 months). Analyses to test the hypothesis that children with ASD do not use temporally predictive information in a typical way are presented in another report in which we compare ASD data to an age matched typically developing control group (34).…”