Late Positive Potential ERP Responses to Social and Nonsocial Stimuli in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Stephen D Benning, Megan Kovac, Alana Campbell and 9 others
PMID 27344337WHAT IT FOUND
Youth with autism showed blunted brain responses to smiling faces and enhanced responses to objects related to restricted interests compared to controls.
However, subjective ratings of pleasure and arousal did not differ between groups, and brain responses did not predict symptom severity.
Key findings
01Youth with ASD had smaller LPP amplitudes to social images and larger LPP amplitudes to nonsocial images compared to controls at the Cz electrode.
02There were no significant differences between groups in subjective valence or arousal ratings of the images.
03LPP amplitudes were not significantly correlated with measures of ASD symptom severity or repetitive behavior.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a standardized set of nonsocial images rather than each child's specific idiosyncratic restricted interests. Over half of the participants with ASD were taking psychotropic medications. The age range was broad (9-19 years). The sample size was relatively small.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that children with ASD report higher pleasure from nonsocial stimuli. While their brain responses to these stimuli were enhanced, their subjective ratings of pleasure and arousal did not differ from controls.