Investigating Motor Preparation in Autism Spectrum Disorder With and Without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Marta Migó, Sylvia B Guillory, Christopher S McLaughlin and 5 others
PMID 34160725WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism and ADHD showed blunted brain signals for motor preparation.
Children with autism alone over-prepared for actions that caused a sound. This is a small lab study of brain waves, not a clinical tool for assessing movement or speech.
Key findings
01Participants with comorbid ASD and ADHD had significantly smaller LRP amplitudes compared to both the ASD-only group and typically developing controls, regardless of whether the action produced a sound.
02Participants with ASD without ADHD showed larger LRP amplitudes than controls when their button press caused a tone, but no difference when the press did not cause a tone.
03Typically developing controls showed larger motor preparation signals when the action did not produce a consequence compared to when it did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size is very small, particularly for the ASD + ADHD group (n=12) and ASD - ADHD group (n=9) after exclusions. Three participants in the ASD + ADHD group were taking medication for ADHD, which could influence brain signals, although post-hoc analysis suggested results held without them. The study used a simple finger-press task, which does not reflect complex functional movements or speech motor planning. The LRP signal polarity was positive in all groups, which is unexpected for adults and may reflect developmental differences in children, making comparison to adult norms difficult. There was no ADHD-only comparison group, so it is unclear if the blunted signal in the comorbid group is specific to ASD+ADHD or just ADHD.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these EEG findings to assess a child's motor planning or speech abilities. The study measured brain activity during a simple button press, not functional movement or communication, and the results are preliminary findings from a small lab experiment with no clinical diagnostic value.