Neural dynamics driving audio-visual integration in autism.

Abstract

Audio-visual (AV) integration plays a crucial role in supporting social functions and communication in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, behavioral findings remain mixed and, importantly, little is known about the underlying neurophysiological bases. Studies in neurotypical adults indicate that oscillatory brain activity in different frequencies subserves AV integration, pointing to a central role of (i) individual alpha frequency (IAF), which would determine the width of the cross-modal binding window; (ii) pre-/peri-stimulus theta oscillations, which would reflect the expectation of AV co-occurrence; (iii) post-stimulus oscillatory phase reset, which would temporally align the different unisensory signals. Here, we investigate the neural correlates of AV integration in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers, measuring electroencephalography during resting state and in an AV integration paradigm. As for neurotypical adults, AV integration dynamics in TD children could be predicted by the IAF measured at rest and by a modulation of anticipatory theta oscillations at single-trial level. Conversely, in ASD participants, AV integration/segregation was driven exclusively by the neural processing of the auditory stimulus and the consequent auditory-induced phase reset in visual regions, suggesting that a disproportionate elaboration of the auditory input could be the main factor characterizing atypical AV integration in autism.