Abstract
The neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is hypothetically related to the imbalance between neural excitation (E) and inhibition (I). Different studies have revealed that alpha-band (8–12 Hz) activity in magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG and EEG) may reflect E and I processes and, thus, can be of particular interest in ASD research. Previous findings indicated alterations in event-related and baseline alpha activity in different cortical systems in individuals with ASD, and these abnormalities were associated with core and co-occurring conditions of ASD. However, the knowledge on auditory alpha oscillations in this population is limited. This MEG study investigated stimulus-induced (Event-Related Desynchronization, ERD) and baseline alpha-band activity (both periodic and aperiodic) in the auditory cortex and also the relationships between these neural activities and behavioral measures of children with ASD. Ninety amplitude-modulated tones were presented to two groups of children: 20 children with ASD (5 girls, Mage = 10.03, SD = 1.7) and 20 typically developing controls (9 girls, Mage = 9.11, SD = 1.3). Children with ASD had a bilateral reduction of alpha-band ERD, reduced baseline aperiodic-adjusted alpha power, and flattened aperiodic exponent in comparison to TD children. Moreover, lower raw baseline alpha power and aperiodic offset in the language-dominant left auditory cortex were associated with better language skills of children with ASD measured in formal assessment. The findings highlighted the alterations of E / I balance metrics in response to basic auditory stimuli in children with ASD and also provided evidence for the contribution of low-level processing to language difficulties in ASD.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available as it is human data but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Roman Cheremin for providing access to the resources of the Center for Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation, Moscow, Russia. We also thank Olga Buivolova and Natalia Deeva for their assistance with participant recruitment in the MRI part of the study. Special thanks go to all children who enthusiastically participated in the study.
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The study was supported by the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
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VA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Project administration. GA: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – Review & Editing. IB: Investigation. MF: Data curation, Formal analysis. ED: Investigation. DP: Investigation. AS: Investigation. ST: Investigation. UM: Investigation. KD: Investigation. OD: Writing – Review & Editing, Resources. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The approval for this study was obtained from the HSE University Committee on Interuniversity Surveys and the Ethical Assessment of Empirical Research (for the TD group) and the local ethics committee of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (for the ASD group). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Arutiunian, V., Arcara, G., Buyanova, I. et al. Abnormalities in both stimulus-induced and baseline MEG alpha oscillations in the auditory cortex of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Struct Funct (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-024-02802-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-024-02802-7