Abstract
BackgroundMany young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience emotional and behavioural problems. However, the causes of these co-occurring difficulties are not well understood. Perceptual processing atypicalities are also often reported in individuals with ASD, but how these relate to co-occurring emotional and behavioural problems remains unclear, and few studies have used objective measurement of perceptual processing.MethodsEvent-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to both standard and deviant stimuli (which varied in pitch) in an auditory oddball paradigm in adolescents (mean age of 13.56 years, SD = 1.12, range = 11.40–15.70) with ASD (n = 43) with a wide range of IQ (mean IQ of 84.14, SD = 24.24, range 27–129). Response to deviant as compared to standard stimuli (as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN)) and response to repeated presentations of standard stimuli (habituation) were measured. Multivariate regression tested the association between neural indices of perceptual processing and co-occurring emotional and behavioural problems.ResultsGreater sensitivity to changes in pitch in incoming auditory information (discrimination), as indexed by increased MMN amplitude, was associated with higher levels of parent-rated behaviour problems. MMN amplitude also showed a trend positive correlation with parent-rated sensory hyper-sensitivity. Conversely, greater habituation at the later N2 component was associated with higher levels of emotional problems. Upon more detailed analyses, this appeared to be driven by a selectively greater ERP response to the first (but not the second or third) standard stimuli that followed deviant stimuli. A similar pattern of association was found with other measures of anxiety. All results remained in covariation analyses controlling for age, sex and IQ, although the association between MMN amplitude and behaviour problems became non-significant when controlling for ASD severity.ConclusionsFindings suggest that alterations in mechanisms of perceptual processing and discrimination may be important for understanding co-occurring emotional and behavioural problems in young people with ASD.
Highlights
Many young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience emotional and behavioural problems
Participants had a clinical diagnosis of ASD, the ‘intensively studied’ group (n = 83) included at present had their diagnosis confirmed at age 10–16 years with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) ([48]) and a subset with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIR) [49]
Perceptual sensitivity as measured by the mismatch negativity (MMN) The Event-related potential (ERP) response to deviant tones was significantly greater than the response to the standard tones (mean standard amplitude = − 0.39, SD = 0.78, range − 3.40– 1.27; mean deviant amplitude = − 0.93, SD = − 1.07, range − 3.71–1.11; t(42) = 3.90, p < 0.01), confirming the presence of the MMN
Summary
Many young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience emotional and behavioural problems. One approach is to test whether performance in certain cognitive domains, thought to be impaired in individuals with ASD, is associated with the presence of psychopathology. This will inform future longitudinal studies, where the predictive role of domains can be fully tested. One of the most well-studied neural indices of perceptual processing in electroencephalography (EEG) paradigms is the mismatch negativity (MMN) component [19] This is a fronto-central negative component found around 100– 200 ms after stimulus presentation, which, in typically developing individuals, is of greater amplitude in response to deviant, as compared to standard stimuli. As MMN amplitude is found to be associated with individual discrimination skill [19,20,21], some have suggested it is an index of individual sensitivity to changes in incoming information (i.e., discrimination)
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