Abstract
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show deficits in the processing of visual stimuli. This systematic review summarized the differences in visual event-related potential (ERP) components among ASD and typically developing individuals. Major databases were searched for finding eligible studies that investigated differences in visual ERP components between ASD and typically developing individuals. Sixty-three eligible studies were found. Analyses showed that the mean differences were significant between ASD and typically developing subjects for N100 amplitude at the anterior brain region for non-face stimuli, N170 amplitude and latency at the posterior brain region for face processing, and P200 latency at the posterior region. Characteristics of stimuli including the emotional content, predictability, familiarity and the reactions that participants were asked to perform during visual stimuli processing were all important confounding factors. The highlighted ERP components can be used as potential biomarkers for the future ASD detection systems. ERP analyses could obtain a promising tool for investigating the impaired visual information processing in ASD.
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References
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This work was funded by Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 140004293698/IR.UMSHA.REC.1400.148)
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S.F and E. J performed the systematic searches and meta-analysis. S.B, A. F, M.R, and K.R designed the study and performed the discussion.
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Table S1. Multi-level meta-analysis results (SMD: standard mean difference; CI: confidence interval; n: number of effect sizes used for pooled SMD calculation). Table S2. Summary of included studies in this study. All studies were case-control (except the cohort study of Foss-Feig (2021)). Abbreviations: ASD (autism spectrum disorder), TD (typically developing), ERP (event-related potentials), amp (amplitude), lat(latency), SMD (standard mean difference according to Hedge’s g formula), CIL(lower edge of confidence interval), CIH(higher edge of confidence interval). Table S3. Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment tool for case-control and pilot studies (score≥7, high quality, score<7, low quality). Fig S1. Funnel plots for publication bias.
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Farashi, S., Jenabi, E., Bashirian, S. et al. Differences Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Individuals During Visual Information Processing—A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Focusing on Visual Event-Related Potentials. Rev J Autism Dev Disord (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-023-00383-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-023-00383-5