Right anterior theta connectivity predicts autistic social traits in typically developing children

Hill, Aron T.; Elst, Jodie Van Der; Bigelow, Felicity J.; Lum, Jarrad A. G.; Enticott, Peter G.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108448

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The AQ subscale social skills evaluates if a person seeks social encounters and manages them well. These correlations highlight the relevance of theta oscillations for autistic traits 47,67 and demonstrate that phase-amplitude coupling is functionally relevant. Moreover, they can explain why individuals with high autistic traits might have problems in higher social cognition as well as visual working memory.…”

Section: Phase-amplitude Coupling Explains Differences In Autistic-tr...mentioning

confidence: 64%

“…These correlations highlight the relevance of theta oscillations for autistic traits (Hill et al, 2022;Larrain-Valenzuela et al, 2017) and demonstrate that phase-amplitude coupling is functionally relevant and can explain why individuals with high autistic traits might have problems in higher social cognition and visual working memory.…”

Section: Phase-amplitude Coupling Explains Differences In Autistic-tr...mentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Associations between the theta rhythm and autistic-traits were reported in literature (Hill et al, 2022; Larrain-Valenzuela et al, 2017). In our study, the preferred FM-theta phase in the social task was correlated with the AQ subscale imagination in the low load condition and with the AQ subscale social skills in the high load condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Oscillatory brain activity as unified control mechanism for working memory and social cognition

Friedrich

Hilla

Sterner

et al. 2023

Preprint

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It has long been thought that coordination of briefly maintained information (so-called working memory) and higher social cognition (mentalizing) rely on mutually exclusive brain mechanisms. However, here we show that slow rhythmical brain activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex controls distributed networks associated with working memory as well as mentalizing during cognitively demanding visual and social tasks. Depending on the effort necessary for cognitive operations, the phase of slow frontal oscillations is used to precisely tune communication with posterior brain areas. For participants having low autistic personality traits, this mechanism is identical across tasks - no matter whether visual or social information is processed. This underpins a unified function of the mentioned oscillatory brain mechanism in working memory and mentalizing. Participants with high autistic personality traits - thus, with difficulty in social cognition - however, have an inability to efficiently tune brain communication depending on cognitive effort in visual information processing. Even more striking, in higher social cognition they fail to implement coordination of distributed brain networks by slow frontal oscillations completely. So, while these findings suggest a unified function of brain oscillations in cognitive coordination they also explain why individuals with high autistic personality traits can have difficulties with demanding cognitive processing across domains.

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Section: Phase-amplitude Coupling Explains Differences In Autistic-tr...mentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Phase-amplitude Coupling Explains Differences In Autistic-tr...mentioning

confidence: 69%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Oscillatory brain activity as unified control mechanism for working memory and social cognition

Friedrich

Hilla

Sterner

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Due to the heterogeneity and spectrum nature of clinical conditions such as autism, it is important to investigate the extent to which brain processes relate to specific symptom domains relevant to specific conditions, rather than within the constraints of diagnostic boundaries. The broader autism phenotype reflects the notion that milder autistic traits are present in varying degrees across the non-clinical population globally (60,61), hence, extensive evidence supports the utility of non-clinical populations in investigating the behavioral and neurobiological characteristics of autism (25,62,63). The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) highlight the limitations of diagnosis-specific research, and provides a rich framework for understanding psychiatric conditions in the context of varying degrees of symptomatology with neurobiological and/or genetic origins (64).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Indeed, many of the behavioural and neurophysiological differences observed between autism and control groups appear to hold true in non-clinical, high autistic trait groups (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Thus, extensive evidence supports the utility of non-clinical populations in investigating the behavioural and neurobiological characteristics of autism (16,20,21).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resting state aperiodic slope predicts Research Domain Criteria Social Processes in young typically developing adults

Ford,

Hill,

Parrella

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background: The aperiodic slope has been utilized to demonstrate differences in brain excitation-inhibition (E/I) in ageing, cognition, and neuro- and psycho-pathology. Furthermore, E/I imbalance has been associated with social communication difficulties in clinical and non-clinical groups. No work to date has explored the association between aperiodic activity and social communication difficulties. Methods: A total of 40 typically developing young adults aged 18-24 (24 female; age mean=21.6, SD=1.9) each underwent 5 minutes each of eyes open and eyes closed resting state EEG using a 64-channel HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net. Participants also completed Research Domain Criteria Social Processes measures: Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (RME), and Penn Emotional Recognition Task (PER). Results: Sex differences in aperiodic slope and offset were observed, with steeper slope and greater offset observed in males, suggestive of increased inhibitory tone in this subgroup (ps<.05). Whole-brain aperiodic activity was not associated with SRS or RME scores, however better PER performance was differentially associated with left social brain slope and right social brain offset, with left slope decreasing (i.e., increasing E/I) and right offset increasing (i.e., decreasing E/I) with better performance (ps<.05). Conclusions: These data show promise for supporting the notion that brain E/I is associated with social communication and processing difficulties, and this may extend to clinical groups (e.g., autism).

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Right anterior theta connectivity predicts autistic social traits in typically developing children

Cited by 2 publications

References 26 publications

Oscillatory brain activity as unified control mechanism for working memory and social cognition

Oscillatory brain activity as unified control mechanism for working memory and social cognition

Resting state aperiodic slope predicts Research Domain Criteria Social Processes in young typically developing adults

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