Research Status and Prospect Analysis of Autism Spectrum Disorders on the Basis of TMS and tDCS

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become one of research hotspots in recent years. With the increasing number of patients, dominated by children, finding effective therapies has been under study, ranging from medication to stimulation treatments. Additionally, due to the heterogeneity of ASD symptoms, simple and universal biomarkers are also needed to be found to improve accuracy of diagnosis. This article reviews Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) with the key recording technique, Electroencephalogram (EEG), in the treatment of individuals with ASD. The author selects 10 representative research papers published on PubMed in the past 5 years for discussion. The author separately analyzes their major methods, results and new discoveries, followed by potential problems and future development directions of these two kinds of therapy methods. The Related Works in this review is organized in the order of different stimulation sites for each stimulation, including most common sites dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC) and right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ). In the end of this review, the expectations for future research and treatments of ASD are proposed from the perspective of the author. Based on recent studies and reasonable speculation by the author, homogenous subgroup analysis and more broadly available therapy research will be scientific trends for ASD therapy in the future.