Auditory event-related potentials and associations with sensory patterns in children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, and typical development.
Franc Cl Donkers, Mike Carlson, Sarah E Schipul and 2 others
PMID 31845589WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism showed smaller brain responses to unexpected sounds than children with developmental delay or typical development.
Weaker responses were linked to sensory under-response and seeking, not over-response.
Key findings
01Children with autism had smaller attention-related brain responses to novel sounds than children with developmental delay and typically developing children.
02Early sensory responses to standard tones were lower in both autism and developmental delay groups than in typical children, but the difference weakened after mental age was considered.
03In children with autism or developmental delay, smaller early sensory and attention-related brain responses were associated with more observed sensory under-response and sensation-seeking, while sensory over-response had no such association.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Cross-sectional group comparisons cannot show that a treatment changes brain responses or sensory behavior. Twenty-eight additional children were excluded, and attrition was highest in the autism group (38% vs. 19% for developmental delay and 15% for typical development), largely because of discomfort with the EEG procedure. This may have removed children with the most sensory difficulty. The developmental delay group was small (17 children), and the autism and developmental delay groups differed in mental age from the typical group. Some early sensory differences weakened after mental age was adjusted, so developmental level may explain part of the finding. The sounds were presented while children watched a low-sound video, and children with autism may have been more absorbed in the video, which could affect auditory responses. The deviant tones differed from standard tones by only 5 to 10%, so null findings for those sounds may not apply to more distinct sounds. Many children with autism had ERP values within the typical range, so group differences do not identify an individual child.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The study was grant-funded.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the smaller response to unexpected sounds as a diagnostic marker or a reason to change sensory therapy for an individual child. The study reports group averages, many children with autism fell within the typical range, and the authors describe clinical use as tentative because auditory brain response results have not been translated into practice.