Do we all synch alike? Brain-body-environment interactions in Autism

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by rigidity of routines and restricted interests, and atypical social communication and interaction. Recent evidence for altered synchronization of neuro-oscillatory brain activity with regularities in the environment and altered peripheral nervous system function in ASD present promising novel directions for studying pathophysiology and its relationship to ASD clinical phenotype. Normally, perception occurs in a dynamic context, where brain oscillations synchronize with external events to optimally receive temporally predictable information, leading to improved performance. In ASD, however, predictions are not applied in a typical manner. Impaired ability to adapt to contextual changes to anticipate upcoming events would lead to a highly unpredictable environment and failures in communication and might play a major role in the symptomatology of the condition. Recent findings on temporal dynamics of signals from the brain and the body in successful social interactions highlight this as a critical direction in the study of ASD. Given the tight, time-sensitive coupling between the brain and the periphery in cognition and social interactions, we offer a novel perspective of autism as a case where the temporal dynamics of brain-body-environment coupling is impaired. The following perspective takes evidence in the literature to support a physiological framework of how the nervous system fails to operate in an adaptive manner to synchronize with temporally predictable events in the environment to optimize perception and reaction in ASD. This physiological framework could potentially illuminate the hallmark deficits in ASD: Cognitive rigidity, and altered social interaction.