Abstract
Electroencephalographic measures of the neurophysiological dysfunction underlying autism have been nonspecific and incomplete. Studies using electroencephalogric methods have been fraught with subject sampling bias, a lack of standardized techniques and measures, and a lack of appropriate control groups. Low-functioning autistic children with age-matched normals, age-matched mentally handicapped, and mentally age-matched normal toddlers were tested using a computerized electroencephalographic technique. The autistic children showed significantly more slow wave activity and less alpha, as well as less inter- and intrahemispheric asymmetry than either normal or mentally handicapped children. In general, electroencephalographic features of autistic children closely resembled those of the toddlers, supporting a model of maturational lag as the key descriptor for autistic CNS functioning. A model of diminished cortical differentiation is proposed to account for the low level of intellectual functioning.
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This work was supported in part by USDA Grant No. HRD-0200, and by Grants-in-Aid awards of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. We wish to thank the technicians and staff of the Applied Neuroscience Institute for their assistance in data acquisition of the nonautistic children used in this study. We also wish to thank the teaching and administrative staff of the Suffolk Child Development Center for their participation in subject selection and training, with special thanks to Dr. Martin Hamburg, Dr. Creighton Newsom, and Michael Darcy. Special thanks to Paul Dores for his assistance in designing many of the training techniques used with the autistic children in this study. Finally, we wish to thank the parents of the children tested in this study for their unending patience and cooperation.
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Cantor, D.S., Thatcher, R.W., Hrybyk, M. et al. Computerized EEG analyses of autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord 16, 169–187 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531728
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531728