1Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Klostergata 46, N-7030 Trondheim, Norway.
2Department of Pediatrics, St. Olavs hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
Mol Autism. 2019 Mar 5;10:10. doi: 10.1186/s13229-019-0259-3. eCollection 2019.
The core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are easily recognizable in non-structured clinical and real-life situations. The features are often difficult to capture in structured laboratory settings, and the results from tests do not necessarily reflect symptom severity. We investigated neurophysiological processing in the parts of a cued Go-NoGo task, using the parts of the test as a comparator.
Forty-nine adolescents diagnosed with ASD and 49 typically developing (TD) adolescents (age 12-21 years) were included. Daily life executive function was assessed with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). We applied a visual cued Go-NoGo task and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). We investigated occipital N1, a component related to early perception of visual stimuli, and P3a, a fronto-central component related to switching of attention, in the passive and active parts of the test.
During the passive parts, the ASD group had statistically significantly longer N1 latency ( < 0.001, Cohens 0.75) and enhanced amplitude of P3a ( = 0.002, Cohens 0.64) compared to the TD, while no significant differences were observed in the active parts. Both components correlated significantly with the Behavioral Regulation Index of the BRIEF (partial correlation = 0.35, = 0.003).
Delayed N1 response, indicating altered visual perception, and enhanced P3a response, indicating increased neural activation related to attention allocation, were found during the passive parts of a Go-NoGo task in ASD participants. These abnormal ERP signals in the non-structured settings were associated with everyday executive function, suggesting that neurophysiolocal measures related to atypical control of alertness and "hyper-awareness" underlie daily life dysfunction in ASD. Assessments during passive settings have a potential to reveal core neurobiological substrates of ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的核心特征在非结构化的临床和现实生活情境中很容易识别。这些特征在结构化的实验室环境中往往难以捕捉，并且测试结果不一定反映症状的严重程度。我们在提示 Go-NoGo 任务的部分中研究了神经生理处理，将测试的部分作为比较。
纳入了 49 名被诊断为 ASD 的青少年和 49 名典型发育（TD）的青少年（年龄 12-21 岁）。使用行为评定量表（BRIEF）评估日常生活中的执行功能。我们应用了视觉提示 Go-NoGo 任务，并记录了事件相关电位（ERPs）。我们研究了与视觉刺激的早期感知相关的枕部 N1 和与注意力切换相关的额中央 P3a，这两个成分在测试的被动和主动部分都有涉及。
在被动部分，与 TD 组相比，ASD 组的 N1 潜伏期明显更长（ < 0.001，Cohens 0.75），P3a 的振幅增强（ = 0.002，Cohens 0.64），而在主动部分则没有观察到显著差异。这两个成分都与 BRIEF 的行为调节指数显著相关（部分相关 = 0.35， = 0.003）。
在 ASD 参与者的 Go-NoGo 任务的被动部分中，发现了延迟的 N1 反应，表明视觉感知发生改变，以及增强的 P3a 反应，表明与注意力分配相关的神经激活增加。这些非结构化设置中的异常 ERP 信号与日常执行功能有关，表明警觉和“过度警觉”的异常控制相关的神经生理测量是 ASD 日常生活功能障碍的基础。在被动环境下的评估有可能揭示 ASD 的核心神经生物学基础。
