Abstract
BackgroundAtypical neural responses to repeated auditory and linguistic stimuli have been reported both in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives. Recent work suggests that the younger siblings of children with ASD have atypical event-related potentials (ERPs) to repeated tones at 9 months of age; however, the functional significance is unclear, and it is unknown whether this atypicality is also present in response to linguistic stimuli.MethodsWe analyzed ERPs to repetitive and deviant consonant-vowel stimuli at 9 months in 35 unaffected high-risk-for-autism (HRA) infant siblings of children with ASD and 45 low-risk control (LRC) infants. We examined a positive component, the P150, over frontal and central electrode sites and investigated the relationships between this component and later behavior.ResultsOver frontal electrodes, HRA infants had larger-amplitude ERPs to repetitions of the standard than LRC infants, whereas ERPs to the deviant did not differ between HRA and LRC infants. Furthermore, for HRA infants, the amplitude of ERPs to the standards was positively correlated with later language ability.ConclusionsOur work suggests that atypical ERPs to repeated speech during infancy are a possible endophenotype of ASD but that this atypicality is associated with beneficial, rather than disordered, language development. Potential mechanisms driving these relationships and implications for development are discussed.
Highlights
Atypical neural responses to repeated auditory and linguistic stimuli have been reported both in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives
No direct comparisons of neural responses to auditory repetition have been made between age- or behavior-matched groups of individuals with ASD and unaffected individuals with a family history of ASD, making interpretation of group differences difficult, and it is possible that group differences in neural response are due to group differences in behavioral characteristics rather than ASD
We explored the possibility that HRA infants have atypical event-related potential (ERP) to repetitive speech stimuli, potentially similar to what has been reported for tones [26], by focusing on infants’ P150s to consecutively presented standards in a sample expanded from Seery et al [35]
Summary
Atypical neural responses to repeated auditory and linguistic stimuli have been reported both in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives. Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been used extensively to study auditory and linguistic processing in adults and children with ASD, often by measuring electrophysiological response to a repeated auditory stimulus (a ‘standard’). Atypical neural responses to auditory and linguistic stimuli, including responses to repetitive stimuli, are evident in the unaffected relatives of individuals with ASD [12,17,18,19], suggesting that these may serve as familial risk markers of autism; these atypicalities can manifest differently in individuals with ASD than in their unaffected family members [12,17]. No direct comparisons of neural responses to auditory repetition have been made between age- or behavior-matched groups of individuals with ASD and unaffected individuals with a family history of ASD, making interpretation of group differences difficult, and it is possible that group differences in neural response are due to group differences in behavioral characteristics (e.g., cognitive ability and language ability) rather than ASD
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