Dickinson Abigail, Ryan Declan, McNaughton Gabrielle, Levin April, Naples Adam, Borland Heather, Bernier Raphael, Chawarska Katarzyna, Dawson Geraldine, Dziura James, Faja Susan, Kleinhans Natalia, Sugar Catherine, Senturk Damla, Shic Frederick, Webb Sara Jane, McPartland James C, Jeste Shafali
Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2024 Sep;165:55-63. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2024.05.015. Epub 2024 Jun 8.
Electroencephalography (EEG) measures of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) provide a targeted approach for investigating neural circuit dynamics. This study separately analyses phase-locked (evoked) and non-phase-locked (induced) gamma responses within the VEP to comprehensively investigate circuit differences in autism.
We analyzed VEP data from 237 autistic and 114 typically developing (TD) children aged 6-11, collected through the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT). Evoked and induced gamma (30-90 Hz) responses were separately quantified using a wavelet-based time-frequency analysis, and group differences were evaluated using a permutation-based clustering procedure.
Autistic children exhibited reduced evoked gamma power but increased induced gamma power compared to TD peers. Group differences in induced responses showed the most prominent effect size and remained statistically significant after excluding outliers.
Our study corroborates recent research indicating diminished evoked gamma responses in children with autism. Additionally, we observed a pronounced increase in induced power. Building upon existing ABC-CT findings, these results highlight the potential to detect variations in gamma-related neural activity, despite the absence of significant group differences in time-domain VEP components.
The contrasting patterns of decreased evoked and increased induced gamma activity in autistic children suggest that a combination of different EEG metrics may provide a clearer characterization of autism-related circuitry than individual markers alone.
脑电图（EEG）对视觉诱发电位（VEP）的测量为研究神经回路动力学提供了一种有针对性的方法。本研究分别分析了VEP中锁相（诱发）和非锁相（诱导）的伽马反应，以全面研究自闭症患者的神经回路差异。
我们分析了通过自闭症临床试验生物标志物联盟（ABC-CT）收集的237名6至11岁自闭症儿童和114名发育正常（TD）儿童的VEP数据。使用基于小波的时频分析分别量化诱发和诱导的伽马（30-90Hz）反应，并使用基于排列的聚类程序评估组间差异。
与TD同龄人相比，自闭症儿童的诱发伽马功率降低，但诱导伽马功率增加。诱导反应的组间差异显示出最显著的效应大小，在排除异常值后仍具有统计学意义。
我们的研究证实了最近的研究结果，即自闭症儿童的诱发伽马反应减弱。此外，我们观察到诱导功率显著增加。基于ABC-CT的现有发现，这些结果突出了检测伽马相关神经活动变化的潜力，尽管在时域VEP成分中没有显著的组间差异。
自闭症儿童诱发伽马活动减少和诱导伽马活动增加的对比模式表明，与单独的个体标记相比，不同EEG指标的组合可能更清楚地表征与自闭症相关的神经回路。
