Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2012 Sep;123(9):1798-809. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2012.02.061. Epub 2012 Mar 9.
Although distinct patterns of resting brain electrical activity (EEG) and functional connectivity are believed to distinguish individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) from their unimpaired peers, researchers have only recently begun to link patterns of brain activity and connectivity to behavior in ASD.
We examined regional eyes-closed and eyes-open EEG alpha power and coherence at rest in relation to self-reported perceptual and social behavior in 15 adults diagnosed with ASD and a matched comparison group of 16 unimpaired adults.
The groups did not differ on eyes-closed EEG alpha power or coherence, but adults with ASD showed less alpha suppression for the eyes-open condition than did controls. In the ASD group, preferential attention to detail (perceptual domain) was associated with lower levels of alpha activity and reduced coherence in posterior regions. No relations between social interaction difficulties (social domain) and alpha measures were found for either group alone.
These relations suggest that the processing of perceptual details may be carried out by relatively less synchronized neuronal units in adults with ASD, and may be relatively automatic.
Findings are discussed in relation to recent models of narrow minicolumnar brain structure and reduced functional neural connectivity in ASD.
尽管人们认为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者与未受影响的同龄人之间存在明显不同的静息大脑电活动（EEG）和功能连接模式，但研究人员最近才开始将大脑活动和连接模式与 ASD 中的行为联系起来。
我们研究了 15 名被诊断为 ASD 的成年人和 16 名未受影响的成年人在闭眼和睁眼静息状态下的局部 EEGα 功率和相干性与自我报告的感知和社交行为之间的关系。
两组在闭眼 EEGα 功率或相干性上没有差异，但 ASD 组在睁眼状态下的α 抑制程度低于对照组。在 ASD 组中，对细节的偏好（感知域）与后区的α活动水平降低和相干性降低有关。对于两个组，都没有发现社交互动困难（社交域）与α 测量值之间的关系。
这些关系表明，在 ASD 成年人中，感知细节的处理可能由相对较少同步的神经元单元进行，并且可能是相对自动的。
研究结果与 ASD 中小柱状脑结构狭窄和功能神经连接减少的最近模型进行了讨论。
