New approaches to clinical electroencephalography analysis in typically developing children and children with autism

Abstract

Clinical analysis of EEG is time-consuming and requires a high level of expertise. In this study, we developed a new approach for EEG analysis applying quantitative methods for assessing clinical indices of EEG for four age groups of children with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and four age- and non-verbal IQ-matched groups of typically developing (TD) children. The new approach showed higher sensitivity and ASD-TD differences than conventional quantitative EEG analysis. TD and ASD groups had similar dispersions of EEG power spectral density, coherence, and peak alpha frequency, but the groups differed in the index, frequency variability, and instantaneous prevailing frequency of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). The ASD-TD difference in SMR index and instantaneous prevailing frequency disappeared by the age of ten years. The ASD-TD differences in SMR frequency variability were most prominent in children younger than 4 and older than 10 years.