Differential Altered Auditory Event-Related Potential Responses in Young Boys on the Autism Spectrum With and Without Disproportionate Megalencephaly.

The sample was small, with 36 boys total, so the study may have limited statistical power. Only boys were studied, so the findings do not address girls with autism or disproportionately large brain volume. The EEG was recorded only once, between about 2 and 3.5 years of age, so the study cannot show how these brain responses change over time. Typically developing children with disproportionately large brain volume were not included, so the study cannot separate the effect of brain volume from the effect of autism. The sensory questionnaire scores were too sparse to analyze, so caregiver-reported sensory problems were not linked to the brain responses. The main measure was global field power, which summarizes overall scalp response strength but cannot show where in the brain the differences occurred. Several analyses were exploratory, especially latency, and no significant correlations were found with autism severity, developmental quotient, age, or head circumference.

No author conflict-of-interest statement is supplied; the article is tagged as supported by NIH and non-U.S. government research.

Do not read these brain-response patterns as a clinical test or proof that enlarged brain volume causes sensory problems. The study included only 36 boys, used EEG once, measured brain responses rather than communication or daily function, and showed large individual variability.