P300 amplitude and latency in autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an early onset neurodevelopmental disorder. Evidence suggests that ASD patients have abnormalities in information processing. Event-related potential (ERP) technique can directly record brain neural activity in real time. P300 is a positive ERP component which can measure the neuroelectrophysiological characteristics of human beings and has the potential to discover the pathological mechanism of ASD. However, P300 studies on ASD patients are incongruent and the disparities may be caused by several factors. By searching PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases, a meta-analysis of P300 component difference between ASD group and typically developed (TD) control group was conducted. Results of amplitude and latency of P3b and P3a from included studies were synthesized. Random effect model was chosen and standardized mean difference (SMD) was calculated. Subgroup analysis was used to identify the source of heterogeneity and to test the effect of different experiment factors. A total of 407 ASD patients and 457 TD controls from 32 studies were included in this analysis. Reduced amplitude of P3b was found in ASD group (SMD = -0.505, 95 % CI -0.873, -0.138) compared with TD group, but no difference of P3b latency, P3a amplitude, or P3a latency was found between groups. Subgroup analysis showed that oddball paradigm elicited attenuated P3b amplitude in Pz electrode among ASD subjects. This meta-analysis suggests ASD patients have abnormalities in P300 component, which may represent for deficits in cognition, attention orientation and working memory processing, particularly in the decision-making processing condition.

Event-Related Potentials in a Cued Go-NoGo Task Associated with Executive Functions in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder; A Case-Control Study

“…In a recent meta-analysis of ASD compared to TD, Cui et al (2016) found diverging P3 results which they attributed to high heterogeneity among the studies. They reported some evidence for reduced P3b amplitude in ASD.…”

“…We did not find significant attenuation of P3 in ASD. This discrepancy could be due to differences in participants and paradigms (Cui et al, 2016). The performance-results in our study were mainly similar between TD and ASD supporting normal abilities in classification of the stimulus and selection of responses after S2.…”

“…Some studies have investigated ERPs associated with attention and inhibition in ASD (Tye et al, 2014; Cui et al, 2016; Faja et al, 2016; Thillay et al, 2016; Kim et al, 2017). Enhanced CNV was reported in children 8–13 years with ASD compared to TD (Tye et al, 2014).…”

“…Thus, there are conflicting findings according to N2. A recent meta-analysis of P3 amplitude and latency in ASD (Cui et al, 2016) reported great variability and attribute this to differences in tasks and participants. However, they summarized that ASD showed attenuated P3b amplitudes and attributed this to abnormal information processing in the selection of responses.…”

Autism spectrum disorder: Trends in research exploring etiopathogenesis

“…In the task state, the increased right temporal‐central alpha coherence seen in the 17 typically developing children was not seen in the 16 children with ASD . A meta‐analysis of 32 studies assessing the differences in P300 between the ASD group ( n = 407) and the typically developing control group ( n = 457) found a reduced amplitude of P300 in ASD (standardized mean difference: –0.51; 95%CI, −0.87 to 0.14) . However, it is possible that those with ASD focused on the detailed information or local features instead of the global picture, which could have added difficulty to the task demand and consequently reduced P300 amplitude .…”