Affiliation:
1. Child Study Center Yale School of Medicine New Haven Connecticut USA
2. Department of Anesthesiology Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
Abstract
AbstractElectroencephalographic peak alpha frequency (PAF) is a marker of neural maturation that increases with age throughout childhood. Distinct maturation of PAF is observed in children with autism spectrum disorder such that PAF does not increase with age and is instead positively associated with cognitive ability. The current study clarifies and extends previous findings by characterizing the effects of age and cognitive ability on PAF between diagnostic groups in a sample of children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder. Resting EEG data and behavioral measures were collected from 45 autistic children and 34 neurotypical controls aged 8 to 18 years. Utilizing generalized additive models to account for nonlinear relations, we examined differences in the joint effect of age and nonverbal IQ by diagnosis as well as bivariate relations between age, nonverbal IQ, and PAF across diagnostic groups. Age was positively associated with PAF among neurotypical children but not among autistic children. In contrast, nonverbal IQ but not age was positively associated with PAF among autistic children. Models accounting for nonlinear relations revealed different developmental trajectories as a function of age and cognitive ability based on diagnostic status. Results align with prior evidence indicating that typical age‐related increases in PAF are absent in autistic children and that PAF instead increases with cognitive ability in these children. Findings suggest the potential of PAF to index distinct trajectories of neural maturation in autistic children.
Funder
National Institute of Mental Health
Subject
Genetics (clinical),Neurology (clinical),General Neuroscience
Reference66 articles.
1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)
2. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years‐autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2010;Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance Year 2010 Principal Investigators;Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Surveillance Summary,2014
3. EEG differences between eyes-closed and eyes-open resting conditions
4. Resting-state alpha power is selectively associated with autistic traits reflecting behavioral rigidity