Hill Aron T, Ford Talitha C, Bailey Neil W, Lum Jarrad A G, Bigelow Felicity J, Oberman Lindsay M, Enticott Peter G
Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia.
Centre for Human Psychopharmacology & Swinburne Neuroimaging, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
bioRxiv. 2024 Aug 28:2024.08.27.609816. doi: 10.1101/2024.08.27.609816.
Altered brain connectivity and atypical neural oscillations have been observed in autism, yet their relationship with autistic traits in non-clinical populations remains underexplored. Here, we employ electroencephalography (EEG) to examine functional connectivity, oscillatory power, and broadband aperiodic activity during a dynamic facial emotion processing (FEP) task in 101 typically developing children aged 4-12 years. We investigate associations between these electrophysiological measures of brain dynamics and autistic traits as assessed by the Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition (SRS-2). Our results revealed that increased FEP-related connectivity across theta (4-7 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) frequencies correlated positively with higher SRS-2 scores, predominantly in right-lateralized (theta) and bilateral (beta) cortical networks. Additionally, a steeper 1/-like aperiodic slope (spectral exponent) across fronto-central electrodes was associated with higher SRS-2 scores. Greater aperiodic-adjusted theta and alpha oscillatory power further correlated with both higher SRS-2 scores and steeper aperiodic slopes. These findings underscore important links between FEP-related brain dynamics and autistic traits in typically developing children. Future work could extend these findings to assess these EEG-derived markers as potential mechanisms underlying behavioural difficulties in autism.
在自闭症患者中已观察到大脑连接性改变和非典型神经振荡，然而它们在非临床人群中与自闭症特征的关系仍未得到充分探索。在此，我们采用脑电图（EEG）来检查101名4至12岁发育正常儿童在动态面部情绪加工（FEP）任务期间的功能连接性、振荡功率和宽带非周期性活动。我们研究这些大脑动力学的电生理指标与通过社交反应量表第二版（SRS - 2）评估的自闭症特征之间的关联。我们的结果显示，在θ（4 - 7Hz）和β（13 - 30Hz）频率上与FEP相关的连接性增加与较高的SRS - 2得分呈正相关，主要集中在右侧化（θ）和双侧（β）皮质网络。此外，额中央电极上更陡峭的类似1/的非周期性斜率（频谱指数）与较高的SRS - 2得分相关。更大的经非周期性调整的θ和α振荡功率进一步与较高的SRS - 2得分和更陡峭的非周期性斜率相关。这些发现强调了在发育正常儿童中FEP相关的大脑动力学与自闭症特征之间的重要联系。未来的研究可以扩展这些发现，以评估这些源自EEG的指标作为自闭症行为困难潜在机制的可能性。
