Vettori Sofie, Dzhelyova Milena, Van der Donck Stephanie, Jacques Corentin, Steyaert Jean, Rossion Bruno, Boets Bart
Center for Developmental Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Leuven Autism Research (LAuRes), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Apr 28;11:332. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00332. eCollection 2020.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties with social communication and interaction. The social motivation hypothesis states that a reduced interest in social stimuli may partly underlie these difficulties. Thus far, however, it has been challenging to quantify individual differences in social orientation and interest, and to pinpoint the neural underpinnings of it. In this study, we tested the neural sensitivity for social versus non-social information in 21 boys with ASD (8-12 years old) and 21 typically developing (TD) control boys, matched for age and IQ, while children were engaged in an orthogonal task. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) during fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) of social versus non-social stimuli to obtain an objective implicit neural measure of relative social bias. Streams of variable images of faces and houses were superimposed, and each stream of stimuli was tagged with a particular presentation rate (i.e., 6 and 7.5 Hz or ). This frequency-tagging method allows disentangling the respective neural responses evoked by the different streams of stimuli. Moreover, by using superimposed stimuli, we controlled for possible effects of preferential looking, spatial attention, and disengagement. Based on four trials of 60 s, we observed a significant three-way interaction. In the control group, the frequency-tagged neural responses to faces were larger than those to houses, especially in lateral occipito-temporal channels, while the responses to houses were larger over medial occipital channels. In the ASD group, however, faces and houses did not elicit significantly different neural responses in any of the regions. Given the short recording time of the frequency-tagging paradigm with multiple simultaneous inputs and the robustness of the individual responses, the method could be used as a sensitive marker of social preference in a wide range of populations, including younger and challenging populations.
患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的个体在社交沟通和互动方面存在困难。社会动机假说认为，对社会刺激的兴趣降低可能是这些困难的部分原因。然而，到目前为止，量化社会取向和兴趣的个体差异并确定其神经基础一直具有挑战性。在本研究中，我们测试了21名患有ASD的男孩（8至12岁）和21名发育正常（TD）的对照男孩（年龄和智商匹配）在进行正交任务时对社会信息与非社会信息的神经敏感性，同时记录他们在快速周期性视觉刺激（FPVS）过程中的脑电图（EEG），以获得相对社会偏好的客观隐性神经测量指标。将人脸和房屋的可变图像流叠加在一起，每个刺激流都标记有特定的呈现速率（即6和7.5Hz）。这种频率标记方法可以区分不同刺激流诱发的各自神经反应。此外，通过使用叠加刺激，我们控制了优先注视、空间注意力和脱离接触的可能影响。基于60秒的四次试验，我们观察到了显著的三因素交互作用。在对照组中，对面孔的频率标记神经反应大于对房屋的反应，特别是在枕颞外侧通道，而对房屋的反应在枕叶内侧通道更大。然而，在ASD组中，在任何区域，面孔和房屋都没有引起显著不同的神经反应。鉴于频率标记范式在多个同时输入时的记录时间较短以及个体反应的稳健性，该方法可作为广泛人群（包括更年轻和具有挑战性的人群）社会偏好的敏感指标。
