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Attenuated Auditory Event-Related Potentials and Associations with Atypical Sensory Response Patterns in Children with Autism

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Abstract

Neurobiological underpinnings of unusual sensory features in individuals with autism are unknown. Event-related potentials elicited by task-irrelevant sounds were used to elucidate neural correlates of auditory processing and associations with three common sensory response patterns (hyperresponsiveness; hyporesponsiveness; sensory seeking). Twenty-eight children with autism and 39 typically developing children (4–12 year-olds) completed an auditory oddball paradigm. Results revealed marginally attenuated P1 and N2 to standard tones and attenuated P3a to novel sounds in autism versus controls. Exploratory analyses suggested that within the autism group, attenuated N2 and P3a amplitudes were associated with greater sensory seeking behaviors for specific ranges of P1 responses. Findings suggest that attenuated early sensory as well as later attention-orienting neural responses to stimuli may underlie selective sensory features via complex mechanisms.

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Notes

  1. Degrees of freedom (df) are adjusted due to Satterthwaite’s correction for unequal variances.

  2. df adjusted due to Satterthwaite’s correction for unequal variances.

  3. For the pitch deviant P1, there were no main effects of either Anterior position or Lateral position (p > 0.1 for both), however there were significant interactions between Anterior position and both Group (F(2,124) = 8.2, p = 0.0005) and MA (F(2,124) = 4.5, p = 0.01), suggesting that group and MA effects varied across anterior positions. No other interactions were significant.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD42168; T32-HD40127 to S. E. S.). We thank the families whose participation made this study possible and the staff who collected the data. We also acknowledge the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center Autism Subject Registry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the invaluable assistance of Don Trull in developing the EEG demonstration video (NICHD, P30HD03110).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Franc C. L. Donkers, Sarah E. Schipul, Katherine M. Cleary, Anna M. Evans & Aysenil Belger

  2. Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Franc C. L. Donkers, Sarah E. Schipul, Grace T. Baranek, Anna M. Evans & Aysenil Belger

  3. Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Franc C. L. Donkers

  4. Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Grace T. Baranek, John C. Bulluck & Jeanne E. Lovmo

  5. FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Michael T. Willoughby

  6. Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Aysenil Belger

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  1. Franc C. L. Donkers
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Donkers, F.C.L., Schipul, S.E., Baranek, G.T. et al. Attenuated Auditory Event-Related Potentials and Associations with Atypical Sensory Response Patterns in Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 506–523 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1948-y

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