Event-related potential (ERP) correlates of face processing in verbal children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their first-degree relatives: a family study.
Olga V Sysoeva, John N Constantino, Andrey P Anokhin
PMID 30002804WHAT IT FOUND
Brain responses to faces did not reliably separate verbal children with autism from controls or their unaffected siblings.
Differences appeared only with certain EEG setups, so this does not change assessment or therapy.
Key findings
01Face-related brain responses did not consistently separate children with ASD, their unaffected siblings, and unrelated controls.
02A reduced face over object effect in ASD appeared only when the EEG was analysed with the average reference.
03The P1/N170 slope measure did not separate the groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All participants were male, so the results may not apply to females. The analysed sample was smaller than the original sample because some participants were excluded for random task performance, poor ERP signal, or unclear peaks. The fathers had no age-matched controls, so their data could not be directly compared with the younger groups. Diagnosis did not include ADOS data. IQ was not assessed for unaffected groups. The montage had 30 electrodes, which can reduce accuracy for some peak measurements. Group differences depended on EEG reference scheme, so they were not robust.
Declared interests
Funders named were the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Washington University, R01 DA018899, the National Institutes of Health, and K02. The text does not state author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that face-processing ERPs can identify autism or inherited risk in families. The ASD-control differences were inconsistent across EEG references, and unaffected siblings did not differ from controls.