Electrophysiological alterations in motor-auditory predictive coding in autism spectrum disorder.
Thijs van Laarhoven, Jeroen J Stekelenburg, Mart L J M Eussen and 1 others
PMID 30801964WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic participants did not show the typical reduction in an early brain response to sounds they made themselves.
Controls did. This is a laboratory neural difference, not evidence of a therapy target.
Key findings
01Typically developing participants showed a smaller early auditory brain response when they made the tone themselves than when the same tone was replayed.
02Participants with ASD did not show this smaller early response for self-made tones.
03The early response was faster for self-made tones in both groups, so the timing effect was not unique to ASD.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study compared groups in a laboratory EEG task and did not test any therapy, so it cannot tell a therapist what to change for a patient. The participants were aged 15 to 25 years and had full-scale IQ scores of 80 or higher, so the finding may not apply to younger children, older adults, or people with intellectual disability. The autism group was recruited from a mental health institution and all were receiving clinical treatment for severe mental problems and impaired daily living functioning, so the result may not apply to people with ASD who are not in intensive treatment. The autism group had a lower average full-scale IQ than the control group, although the authors reported a further check that this did not explain the absent early brain response. The authors state that the study cannot tell whether the brain difference reflected impaired timing prediction, identity prediction, or a more general prediction mechanism. The paper did not report a link between the electrophysiological result and social communication, sensory difficulties, or daily living functioning.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report a funding source or conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this identifies a treatment target for autism. The study measured a brief brain response in a laboratory button-press task and did not test therapy or patient outcomes.